Second Run
by matrixnis
Summary: You make a decision, you keep running that path until you can't anymore. But when that path leads to nowhere and the other one leads to somewhere, will you ignore it or choose it? That's the question Teresa has to answer in the final Maze that will decide her life.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello everyone, my name is matrixnis. Welcome to my story.**

**Sometimes I read novels, watch movies and think what if that character did not die, what would happen to them? Which direction would that character go if he/she was given a second chance to live? Especially if that happens to someone's favorite.**

**That's what I thought about movie Teresa.**

**Since she is less horrible than the book (that depends on you, but it's my opinion) I really wish she would have survived at the end but they said nope and let her die. I respect that, but a person can dream right? So that is how this story is created.**

**The story will be set during The Death Cure (2018) with some deviations and no borrowing from the novel, so anyone who had read the novels or find the changes bad, please do not antagonize me. I am not shy to admit I am not good at writing since I'm no excellent writer, but I just want to write.**

**Hope you all enjoy reading!**

**P.S: Take care of yourself during the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak!**

* * *

**Chapter 1: Plagued**

* * *

**(Teresa)**

"_Thomas…"_

"_WCKD is good…"_

"_Teresa…"_

"_What have you done…?"_

"_I'm glad you're safe."_

"_She's with them."_

"_It's the only way."_

"_Mom…?"_

…

…

"_YOU FUCKING TRAITOR!"_

…

…

…

"Huh!"

I jot up subconsciously, heavy breathing coming soon after, it takes a bad few seconds to calm myself down.

"_Another nightmare…"_

I swipe my dishevelled hair to a side and got out of the large, luxurious white bed. That feeling of waking up and forcing yourself off the bed, it is just annoying, coupling with slight headache and possible knee pain from bending your knees during sleep, a perfect combo of a bad day.

Luckily there is a way to relieve them: stretching. Spinning my neck, my hands, my knees, all the joints and some basic exercises, just like the time back then at the lab.

After all of the usual, I take a needed bath to wash the nightmare away, then from the closet, I put on a dark brown dress with a long black trench coat over it. That was the moment I notice something was undone.

The dropped sleeping pills.

"_Damn it… must have hit it during the night…"_

I take the pills back to the tube, my thoughts trail out, back to the time I went back to WCKD. I can remember well, the first night I had a nightmare. It was surreal and fragmented, nothing clear to decipher. At first I thought nothing was serious so I ignored them, but damn God who damns the person who disregard his petty game. The nightmares kept coming back more and more frequently, sometimes I even had daydreams too. They began to also be more detailed to my horror.

Mom,

Chuck,

Mary,

Jack,

Winston,

Newt,

Minho…

…

Thomas…

The dead and the living who I betrayed.

I betrayed them all for the greater cause, for everyone on the planet who is suffering from the Flare.

No one has to go through what my mother did, I thought of that when I did it.

But it seems to be falling down day by day.

What happened to them? What happened to Minho, Newt? And Thomas? Are they alive?

I ask myself everyday-

No!

I betrayed them, I cannot think of them anymore!

I chose that path, and I will run down that path until I can't anymore.

Taking a deep breath, I wear my hair up to a bun and walk near the window, taking a beautiful view of the Last City and the morning sunlight to my body.

It is time to work for the cause.

* * *

"Hello Brenda." A male scientist greets me.

"Hello everyone." I reply.

"WCKD just transported a bunch of teenagers to here last night." He said. "They selected several subjects for us to test."

"The best ones?"

"Yeah. They all have gone through harsh conditions like you before. Probably harsher than usual. Their anti-bodies would be stronger than normal." He explained.

"You told us like many times before, and all turned out to be not enough."

"We wasted many unfitted subjects before, not today."

"_Harsh conditions…"_ I think. _"I could have been one of them too, so I was probably spared because I am an asset in the science field…"_

"_Shit…"_

"Teresa?"

"Yeah?" I trail back to reality.

"What were you thinking?" He asks, everyone in the room is also looking at me too.

"Uh… nothing, just… hoping things will be done soon." I come up with a quick answer. "Things are escalated between us and the Right Arm. The whole City could be gone in an instant."

"Then you hope we will have enough time. Let's work people."

I come out of the room and go to the lab, where, to my surprise, Doctor Ava Paige is standing there.

"Doctor?" I wonder. She does not say anything, remaining silent. Despite the obvious tension, I come in anyway, and I quickly wish I wasn't doing it.

Behind the glass was an unconscious teenager strapped to a machine, wires and pumps attached to his body which were linked to a monitor on the right of the room. The person in question is a large, male, Asian, enough to alarm me.

"Minho?" I nearly gasp but manage to keep it together.

"Minho. He was in the Maze with you and Thomas and more. An Immune, a strong one." Ava says. "He was your friend, would this hinder you?"

The sight of seeing my former friend again, but strapped, used like a lab rat, horrified me. No matter how many people of my age who were put in that same place, no matter how many of them are driven to death without an effective cure produced, I didn't bat an eye. I work for the greater cause, those were just minor sacrifices.

But not him.

I would just stand there, frozen in shock, but no, I have to play the act.

"No." Hope the tone was convincing enough, but I don't know. "He **was**, not **is**, so it doesn't matter to me." I told her in the most composed tone I could mutter.

Ava stared into my eyes for a moment, clearly feeling unsure. That woman has that same ruthless drive as mine so I hope she would understand and let things go normal.

Luckily, she goes through it.

"Fine. I'll watch from here."

_Goddammit…_

I get into the lab, sneakily taking a deep breath to calm myself, but somehow that wasn't working.

"We are starting to run a simulation." A scientist in the room informs. "It's all yours Teresa."

I hesitate, staring at the monitor and trying to swallow all the guilt that is growing inside me like the Flare that consumed Winston. I hate myself so much, that is the exact same feeling I had when I experimented my first test subject, a 14-year-old female Runner. I was hesitating just like right now, I thought I buried it all after so many times, but it is rising again.

With all my might I push the button, starting the simulation.

"His brain is stimulating." The scientist says.

"What are you putting him through?"

"The memories of the Maze." I answer.

After a minute, I increased the stimulus. From the memory that all the Runner involving myself, I was sure he was about to encounter a Griever soon.

And true to my thought, he starts screaming uncontrollably, blood start pumping to the pipe and to the machine. How loud he is screaming is out of my thinking as I am phasing out of reality, trying to think of an empty, blissful place, where no sound could be heard, all the while ignoring my conscience.

"The product is being created." A female scientist says.

The blue liquid drips out slowly from the machine, as slow as molasses, greatly contrasting the increasing haunting scream of Minho. However much I want to explode in tears, I cannot. Not in front of many people.

"Stop!" I said, stopping the stimulation. Minho is gasping loudly now, eyes open, lifeless, tortured eyes. The male scientist flashed a small flashlight to his eyes to check stimulus, and there was, much to my relief. Until a tear drops out of his right eye.

"It's not as effective as the Maze's but it seems to be working." He informed.

"_Oh no… not again please…"_ At least not as bad as many times before.

"It's promising." Ava says as she walks into the lab. "But we need a larger sample."

"All right. Carry on Teresa."

I look at Minho regretfully before starting the stimulation again.

Again…

Again…

And again…

I did not know how many times I was close to tears. Doing this to my friend-former friend was too much for me. I don't want to imagine how Thomas would endure like this and how I would handle that.

* * *

"_Great… another bad night…"_

I just woke up from another nightmare. Things are spiralling out of control. I need to finish this quickly.

Suddenly I received a new message.

"Yes?"

"Teresa, it's me Ava. I am having a meeting with the governments of the Last City. Come to the lobby within 15 minutes, I'll be there." And she cut off abruptly, no chance for me to even say anything.

"_A serious one huh…"_ Of course it is if the Doctor goes straight to the point like that. Now I have to pretend I am okay, great…

With basically the same wardrobe like every day, I rush to the lobby and meet Ava there, who was talking to two high-ranking officials.

"Are you ready?"

"Yes I am." I reply, hiding the pain.

"Everything will be alright." She pat my back. Dammit Ava, she is always like that, gentle and warm like a mother to which I might actually consider her.

I walk into the room, there are three people already waiting there. Two males, one female, all in their 60s. We greet them then Ava leads them to the chairs to start discussing while I stand behind as a secretary.

Ava clicked something on her monitor, staring the recording. The meeting was heated for all participants, questions about the safety, the Flare, the Crank, the Right Arm, the Immune and so on.

11 minutes go by and things are going back to the virus problem.

"People are beginning to lose faith Doctor. When you sealed off the wall, you assured us that it would only be a temporary precaution. Why denying all entry?"

"Because things are changing, and not for the better. Infection rate goes up to 300%. Fortunately, we may be on the verge of breakthrough." The screen changes to the data of Minho. I flinch a little before regaining composure. "This is Subject A7. He's spent over three years in the Maze Trials. The anti-bodies produced in response have been the strongest we've ever seen. We're extracting a new serum as we speak and with your support, we'd like to begin human trials."

"Thank you Doctor that is very impressive. But we have been down this road before." The woman said. "Frankly, we are all beginning to wonder if…"

"If our resources couldn't be better spent elsewhere." The man in the middle finishes.

"Meaning?"

"Safe zones. Protected areas like the one we're in. We could save as many people as possible."

These people do not know how things work. I have to step in.

"How many?"

They all look at me now.

"A thousand? Two thousand? And that's assuming your protected areas stay protected, which we know they won't." I come to the front now and Ava sits down. "The infected already outnumber the healthy three-to-one. All you'd be doing is delaying the inevitable. Have any of you ever lost someone to the virus?"

"A niece." The woman answered. "Anna".

"I'm sorry we weren't able to help her. But imagine if we were able to live with the virus. To survive it. Imagine being able to tell Anna that you could give her the chance to live a normal life."

"We've never been this close to a cure. And we've sacrificed a lot to get this far. Please, don't let those sacrifices be for nothing."

The governments nodded in admiration.

"She explains well. I am impressed."

The woman on the other hand, was quite sceptical. "Now prove it. I hope that was not just words."

"I will use action to prove it."

Ava leads them out of the room then she stands beside me.

"Nicely done. They can be a tough crowd but you handled them perfectly." She pauses, looking out the window. "Delaying the inevitable."

"_Delaying… inevitable…_" Those were Thomas' words.

"Thomas used to say the same about us. Do you still think about him?" Her voice was warm and full of concern, it made me want to answer her question as sincerely as possible. And she already knows the answer. "I can help you with that, those memories. There's no reason to keep holding onto them, just a simple procedure."

For a moment I thought about the proposal. It would be nice to forget the sins, the torment it brings to me every night. Forgetting the person that no longer trusts me, that would ease my conscience and help me sleep.

"_But will it really help? Will it prove that I am right in the end? Without the drive to make me try to prove it?"_

So I say no. "There's a reason, I want to remember. If we find a cure, that's the only way all this was worth it."

"I hope you're right." Ava cryptically said. We both look out the window, uncertain of what our choice will lead to, but we chose it, we have to prove that we chose it. Can't be wavered. Can't let emotions ruin the cause.

"I am going back to work, I will see you later." I tell her and walk out of her room.

* * *

With a sample of the serum, I test it on a tissue of a Crank. The result is surprising.

"_They stopped the virus dead on its track."_ I analyse the beta serum after I saw the result through the microscope. _"Hope it works this time."_

I lay back on the chair and see my colleague approaching. "We're ready."

Should I feel happy or sad?

I go to another quarantined lab. As I walk in I could see two Cranks trying to bash the door, but it was useless since the glass is reinforced. The center of the lab was the thing I dread, and hope the most.

"Shai?"

A young girl infected with the Flare. Poor girl, she is pale, swollen, dark veins visible on her face, her eyes reddened from blood. I greet her with a cheerful smile.

"Hi Miss Teresa." She weakly says.

"Hey." I turn to a scientist and nod. He cauterizes the inject spot on her left arm. "How're you felling?"

"Okay."

Another colleague gave me a syringe contained the prototype serum derived from Minho's blood.

"Is it gonna make me better?"

I freeze for a bit before reassuring the girl. "I hope so. Do you remember the story you're telling me? About the house you grow up in?"

"I don't remember."

"By the lake." I injected the serum. Shai groans from the pain, her toes stiffened, her body shaking.

"It burns…"

"I know I know…"

Done was the quick injection. I take the syringe out. "There we go. All done."

The young girl breaths heavily but she began resuming normal breath.

"You're so brave." I encourage her.

Everyone looks at her, hoping to see any progress. She opened her eyes, the red veins begin disappearing until the normal white returns.

"It works!" I inform with a hint of happiness. A fake one probably since that was still too soon to give any confirmation.

"Shai." I turn to face her. "How are you feeling now?" I cautiously ask.

"I… I'm… good Miss Teresa." She says back. I give her a smile again.

"So, are you ready to tell the story?"

She looks at me, beaming a smile to me.

"Yeah." I do not forget to smile back.

"I remember… my parents…" She begins. "They love me so much… everyday… during the afternoon… my dad would take me to the lake… and both he and I would lay down the grass… and tell stories."

"That's interesting."

"And my mom… she would bring pancakes she made from the house, and together we eat. And then the Flare took over…" She stops, her eyes fall deep in sadness.

"I'm sorry…" I hold her hands gently.

"How about you Miss Teresa? Do you have parents?" The innocent question from the girl stops me dead on track.

"Uh… I don't know my dad, and… the Flare took my mom away from me. Just like you, I'm alone."

"Alone? Why Miss Teresa? Don't you have any friends?" And I am loss of words for real. The images of them return. Thomas, Newt, Minho, Frypan, Aris, Brenda…

Clearly I cannot forget them no matter how much I want to. One way or another, they keep coming back.

"I used to." I manage to give an answer. "Uh… Shai, let's not talk about this okay, there are more things to talk and to play."

"Okay."

"I'll get you some candy!" I get up and go back to my lab, meeting Ava and her right-hand man who were talking to each other on the way.

Janson.

I never trust that son of a bitch. Behind that nice and admittedly handsome face, he is a ruthless and trigger-happy asshole, evident by killing Mary in front of everyone. He may say he does everything Ava tells him to and all of it was for the greater cause just like me but I know how self-centered he really is. A dangerous liability. I just hope Ava already knows that.

I give him and Ava a quick glance, to which the former also does a smirk one before going to my lab.

* * *

I spend the rest of the day playing with Shai and talking with her. In short, she was a lively girl and she could have been more bright had it not for the virus. What I am scared though is the serum is just a prototype. Side effects, success rate are not certain, but maybe I worry too much. My colleague probably saw that too since he told me to come home early.

I go back to my room to pack things up, but for some reason I think I am being watched. Killers? No, Janson is not stupid enough. Perverts? Unlikely, as the rules are strict.

I look afar out the window, nothing.

"_You're really messed up now Teresa, better go home soon."_

So here I am, back on the bed again after a shower. A simple crop top and shorts, very convenient to sleep in.

But I am not sleeping yet.

Because I can't.

"_Minho is here, which means Thomas and his friends will try to break him out. Also, I'm not sure whether Shai would be okay or not. What should I do?"_

Obviously I would cross path with them one way or another. I imagine seeing them again. One hell of a bad reunion. They would glare at me, they would want to kill me in every fiber of their being which I am fine with that, but how would I have the will to see Thomas again? The person I cherish the most, the person I love the most…

I just hope he would ignore me like his friends will, it would make things easier.

"_Come on, no more shit thoughts…"_ I reassure myself before taking some pills to go to sleep.

* * *

"_Strange. A good night without any nightmares…"_ I wonder how peaceful the night was for me. I have lived long enough to always be careful of something good that suddenly happens, especially after what I did to them.

Thinking too much about it, however, would not be ideal, and I know that as well.

"_Shouldn't be like this all the time…"_ I wake up and go to the shower. I open the door.

"Huh!" I nearly fell off had I not placed my hand to the wall at the right time. "Thomas?"

I can't believe it! Thomas! How could he-

On my left is Newt standing creepily.

"Teresa…" He whispers in a low tone.

My knees somehow weakens, I try to stay back, looking for something wrong. And indeed, the right corner was wrong.

"Teresa…" Winston muttered. Somehow I realize his face was that of a Crank. And Thomas too, and Newt too…

I frantically run to the window, trying to stay away from them, only to hear a large thud to the glass.

"Teresa…" It was Aris.

"No, stay away from me, stay away from me!"

I stand against the wall, slowly walking back to the remaining free corner while my Crank-like friends start cornering me.

And the last corner was not free when I feel I hit something.

"Teresa!" Minho screams from behind and strangles me with his Crank-like hands. His hands are very strong, probably stronger than normal that I cannot break free no matter how much I try. I feel my eyes darkened, my consciousness fading away when suddenly I find a lamp. With all of my strength I grab it and smack it to Minho's head as strong as I could. The impact forces him to release the grip, allowing me to crawl to the bed, and that is it as everyone is standing around the bed.

I wonder how to escape or what the hell is happening but then something sticky falls onto my shoulders. I look up, a Griever but with Mary's face was hanging in the ceiling. She opens her drooling mouth and lungs towards me.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

…

I jot up, breathing heavily, it takes a bad few seconds to calm myself down.

"_Another nightmare…"_

Something warm envelops my side as I come back to normal.

"_Sunlight? What…"_

I realize the drape was pulled, allowing the light to come in the room, and a woman is sitting there. Blonde hair, white suit, bun.

"Ava? What-what are you doing here?"

Ava does not answer nor turn around. An unsettling atmosphere I feel.

"Ava? Don't play games with me!" I slowly come closer to her "Hey! Do you hear me? Hey-" She turned around as soon as I touch her shoulder. Her face was swollen, black veins all over, her eyes teared out, barely hanging near the sockets. In a second she turned into what I found my mother to be after locking her in the kitchen.

I completely lost it, all I could do is crawl back and yell repeatedly.

…

"Argh!"

I hit my head into something. It was quite painful, but at least I can confirm I am not having any nightmares now. My hair is a mess and my top is horribly sweaty despite not doing morning exercises. I fell off the bed and hit the wall.

The nightmares this time broke me entirely. I cry, cry really, really hard. I am really screwed now. They keep coming back even though I want to cast them out for my goal. What to do now?

Is the path I chose to run wrong?

* * *

**So that was it for the first chapter.**

**Poor Teresa though, going though nightmares. Better not betraying friends for your goal no matter how noble it can be.**

**This is my first time writing in first-person with no technical-know-how so please give advices on where I do not do well.**

**Hope you enjoy reading and I'll come back with a new chapter!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey everyone! Welcome back to my story.**

**Thank you to the first 10 viewers who had read my story. Comeback is never fine but I know the rules.**

**Teresa has had bad three days, and the next one is going to be even worse when her worst fear comes true. What will happen to her? Also, what is going on for Thomas right now? Let's find out!**

* * *

**Chapter 2: Conflicted**

* * *

**(Thomas)**

I'm conflicted.

All I can think right now is, I am conflicted.

Standing at the catwalk just below the top of the wall, I see the building where WCKD keeps Minho captive, possibly used for the infamously immoral serum modulation that we have been desperately trying to escape. My blood pumps through my entire body, boiling my undying will with greater drive than ever. My friends told me it is impossible, but I disagree with that. I am going to break in, rescue Minho and destroy WCKD for good for ruining the lives of myself and everyone I cherish-

Cherish…

Huh…

For the entire year, I tried my best not to give a shit to that particular person anymore, and it actually worked out pretty well, simply by focusing on the present. But at that very moment, the moment I saw through the monocular, I know the effort I've built has just died in an instant.

"_Teresa…"_

"I said I had a way in… I didn't say you're gonna like it."

Damn right, **Gally**.

Yes, the hot-headed leader Gally who antagonized me back at the Glade, the Gally who threatened to offer me and Teresa for the Grievers, the Gally who killed Chuck in front of me. It was supposed to be me, Thomas, or whatever name WCKD threw into my head.

**###**

For some goddamn coincidence some people in masks captured us when we were near the walls. Jorge nearly killed herself trying to protect his partner Brenda when a person suddenly said we were friends to them to calm the situation down.

Guess what?

Right.

He was Gally.

I had every reason to punch his head into a pulp, I guessed Chuck would be proud of that too, so I almost did not find out he was allowing me to do that until Newt talked me out of it.

Apparently, we **left** him to die as he said and these people found him and patched him up, turned out he was an Immune too, no protection against Grievers but the Flare. He told us there was a way into the city and he led us to his boss Lawrence, who was infected but managed to survive by the serum. He wouldn't live long, but sure as hell was he ruthless. His half-Crank half-human face and his party necrotized nose confirmed it if I was having any pint of doubt.

In exchange for his help, I, Gally and Newt must break into the city and comeback in one piece. Jorge, Brenda and Frypan are leverage. Using the subway system and the train station, we managed to break into the city and sneak to the wall to have an idea what the Last City is and how we are going to rescue Minho.

**###**

"Thomas?" Newt called me but I couldn't answer due to all the conflict I am going through.

"Thomas!" A hit to my shoulder. I turn to face him. "We don't have much time, we gotta go!"

I nod and the two of us plus that asshole sneak back to the train station, the subway system and back to the manhole of the rebellion's hideout. Everyone runs to us and hugs us.

"Glad to see you're safe!" Brenda exclaimed.

"Man, took you guys long enough." Frypan said.

"Congratulations. You are back Thomas." Lawrence spoke, his eyes were as icy as ever. "It's too late now to do anything, we're discussing the plan tomorrow. Grab some food and get some rest, and get outta this room before I bite any of you." His last part was a whisper to my ear, a bad lullaby.

Very threatening indeed, but at last I have got his help.

* * *

Midnight comes, everyone is sleeping at an empty room Lawrence "generously" reserved, but I don't have the mood for it, for there is a big day tomorrow and some unresolved conflicts. I quietly get out of the room and go another empty one above it.

I go to the balcony, or what remains of it, looking at the busy crowd below who were either watching for any possible threats or packing things up. Gally wasn't kidding when he said he had a plan and the needs to go through it: there were many jeeps, SUVs, some Browning M2s mounted on the back of the jeeps technical-like, many guns inside the boxes and if I wasn't kidding, several RPGs and its warheads. WCKD would seriously have a hard time facing them and were I still their scientist, I would die for sure.

"Hard time sleeping Greenie?" Someone suddenly said behind me.

"Gally?!" I gasped. "We're not at the Glade anymore, stop calling me that."

He stands beside me and keeps talking like nothing happened. "Why not?"

Was there some uncertainty? I do not know. "I'm a Runner." I reply with a hint of coldness.

"Then you used to be." He said. "Get some sleep, I'll keep watch."

"Everyone down there is doing that, no need for you to."

Now he is uncomfortable.

"You're… different, Thomas. Why are you so cold now? Don't you… don't you need some help?"

I don't say anything but my increasing rage does it for me.

He sighed. "Look Thomas, I know what happened in the past between us. But please-"

I had been holding myself together to avoid doing anything to him to protect my group, but now we are alone in the dark, no one around.

CLICK!

_That was it._ The shocked and scared eyes of the bastard. My trusty SIG P226 does the job nicely.

Gally nervously raises his hands up. "Thomas…?"

"I never forget it."

"Thomas what are you doing?"

"I never forget what you did." I grit my teeth, trying to keep at least some control. "You opposed me every time! You tried to leave us and Teresa to the Grievers, then you killed Chuck! That little boy, that fucking little boy! He was barely twelve and you fucking **killed** him!"

"And you're telling me to trust you **now**? Where do you get that right to do that?!" I pull the hammer down, just a slight 4.5 pounds trigger pull and his head is toast if he asks for it.

"Thomas… please…" He pleaded. To hell with it. I am too angry to care anyway.

"I don't trust you! I don't fucking trust you! I can't trust anyone else anymore!" I pushed him back to the wall with my left hand, causing a pretty loud thud.

"I don't ask you to. I just want to help."

"Help what? Help me get Minho and you think you'll be forgiven? I can do this without you."

"Please Thomas, I really want to. You gotta believe me."

"Then tell me!" I scream. "Tell me WHY, should I fucking **trust** you?!" My gun was pressed on his temple now.

Both Gally and I breath heavily. He remains quiet for a moment. We both calm our breathing down before he answers.

"I'm not sure… but first off, I'm really sorry. I'm sorry Thomas. I never meant to kill Chuck, he was a good kid… I was losing my shit after I got stung… I got my memories back, and I just wanted to kill you."

I have to admit he has a point. I was on the same side as Teresa now back then.

"I blacked out after Minho threw his spear at me… but I still remember his face, his lifeless face… when I came to, days later, they told me the place is toast, no body left to bury… The only thing left I could do to that kid… and I couldn't." He looks away, his eyes start getting watery. Without realizing it, mine were too…

"Tell me Thomas, you worked for WICKED before, do you feel any guilt for everyone you and Teresa put to the Glade? Do you feel it when you watch many of us die?" Now was his turn to attack me.

I hesitated for a bit, not sure of what to say.

"Not before, but after I got out, yeah. Sometimes it's hard to sleep."

"Same goes to me. I don't know if it's better or worse than yours, but I was never at peace after that. If I can do something to say sorry to them, to **Chuck**, I would do it, and helping you guys is one. So please, trust me."

I know he was right, he was having a hard time just like all of us, even worse for him maybe. And it would be to hypocritical to blame someone for their one bad deed while I was doing basically the same thing so many times. I still remember his angry and screaming face when we were about to erase his memories for the first time.

I de-cock the hammer and put my P226 back to my holster.

"Thomas, just remember we need Teresa for our plan. Can't break in without some insider." He reminded me. _No thanks._

"Get some sleep." I ignore that, walking past the tired Gally.

Maybe I was too angry to understand, I was so hurtful to trust anyone, and I am dead sure Gally's words do not reduce it one bit. But maybe I shouldn't do that all the time. And I can't help but wonder:

"_Does Teresa feel guilt for what she did?"_

* * *

"No, there's gotta be another way!"

"Like what? You've seen the building, she is our only way in." Gally reasoned.

"You really think she's gonna help us?"

"I don't plan on asking her."

Brenda adds in. "Am I missing something here? This is the same girl who betrayed us right? Same dick?"

"Oh I like her." Gally joked. Of course I am uncomfortable.

"What's going on?" Haizz…

Brenda, you really know what's going on right? You know why. Do I need to tell you what happened after you kissed me in that brothel?

She was right obviously, but at heart I do not want to use her for this plan. Damn it, I hate love.

"What, are you afraid your little girlfriend's gonna get hurt? Hhm?" Thank you Newt. For reminding. "This is honestly never just about rescuing Minho, isn't it?"

Newt was getting angry. "Newt, what are you talking about?" I try to drive the conversation to another direction.

"Teresa! Is she the only reason that Minho's even missing? Now we are finally able to get him back and what, you don't want to because of her?!" He suddenly erupts and menaces me. "Because deep down you still care about her right?! Just admit it."

"Newt-"

"DON'T LIE TO ME! DON'T! LIE! TO ME!" He presses me to the wall and lashes out. This is not the Newt that I know, so I was legit scared.

Newt stands back, realizing he was going too far. "I'm sorry." And he runs out of the room. I notice his left arm is clutching his right one. Is there something wrong?

I go after him, finding him sitting on the ledge of the rooftop, still clutching his hand.

"I'm sorry about that. Guess I can't hide this anymore." He rolls up his right sleeve, revealing the black veins.

_Oh god…_

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I think I can make a difference… All I know is WCKD must have put me in the Glade for a reason… Maybe to tell the difference between Immunes like you and people like me…"

"You know we can still save you. Okay? We can. Just stay behind-"

"Don't worry about me. It's all about saving Minho. Now he needs us. So if there is even a slightest chance that we can save him… we get him outta there and we have to take that… no matter the cost." I really wish we could bring more people now, but I respect him. I know how much he wants to break Minho out of that shithole.

"Okay I hear you…"

One more problem to worry about. Damn it, the situation's getting out of control…

I've lost a lot of friends already, and I cannot accept losing Newt, but he was one hell of a persistent idiot. Is there anything I can do now?

"_Maybe this will?"_ I decide to tell him.

"You know what Newt?" I said, he looks at me. "When I was at Marcus' brothel with Brenda, we were forced to drink some hallucinating liquid. You remember?"

"Yeah…"

"I saw some of our friends… turned into Crank… Winston…"

I hesitated, but I have to.

"And you Newt…"

Newt looks genuinely surprised, looking like he was thinking I was wishing him dead. I just hope he wasn't feeling that.

"Why are you telling me that?"

"I want to tell you that because…" I put my hand on his shoulder. "It's not gonna happen. We're gonna break in, get Minho out, and after all of that, we're gonna give you the serum okay? I promise."

Newt flashes a smile, appreciating my encouraging.

"Thanks Thomas."

"No problem. But we need to tell everyone about your condition."

"Whatever…"

* * *

**(Teresa)**

"_Teresa?"_

"_Yes Chancellor?"_

"_Ready to convince your friend, he's not corporating."_

I thought a pane of glass between us and I could stay away from him, and yet, it is happening in reverse now.

Sitting at the interrogating table and about to face my friend, I have to try to get into him, but why me? Ava knows he hates me very much, his death glare back in the chopper towards me is the very proof that I don't want to be near him in any way or form. And a simple answer from Janson "because we can't but you can" made me want to punch him.

After a really bad night I had to go back here, pretending to be normal and inhuman, _at least for my friends anyway_. All of this was for the greater good I reminded myself, but at the same time the accumulating guilt also took a seat in the scale of my psyche. I wonder how long I can keep doing this.

The door opens, two guards bring him in. His eyes were lacking any sign of life, his mouth slightly opened, but I know his rage is boiling. We were now face-to-face, once again after a year.

I took a deep breath, trying to remain calm and cast out any fearful thoughts.

"Minho." I start the talk, returning to my professional persona. "Can you hear me?" No response from him.

"There's a little girl here, her name is Shai Lun. She was infected three weeks ago; but Minho, you are going to save her, and you can save so many others."

"Everything we're doing here, it's working." I briefly smiled. "Do you understand? That's why it is so important."

Minho still does not response, I know my convincing is not working.

I get up and tell him. "I just want you to know." Then I start getting out-

"Teresa…" A small whisper. I begin to panic. His vulture eyes were glaring at me again.

"Minho?" I attempt to remain composed, but anyone could notice a slight fear in my voice if they were.

I cautiously walk towards him, getting closer.

"Minho?"

"You're a TRAITOR!"

As fast as lightning, he grabs me and slams me down the table.

"WE TRUSTED YOU!"

He slams me down again.

Thankfully the guards come in to restrain him, but not his raging voice.

"Get off me!"

"GET OFF ME!"

"I'LL KILL YOU! YOU TRAITOR! YOU KILLED EVERYBODY!"

I fearfully get out and close the door. The guards use a taser to knock him out, but not before he let out his haunting scream. I was incredibly lucky not to die there. Before I have my chance to calm the hell down a scientist ran urgently to me.

"Teresa, they need you at the med lab, it sounds serious." She says. I follow her. As I go in I see guards going in the lab and saw Ava standing there. She looks at me… regretfully?

"I'm sorry Teresa."

And the scene inside tells me why. Shai was screaming, her eyes were red, the infection resumes…

_The serum did not work…_

I stand there completely shocked, feeling like an utter failure. It was supposed to work right? The serum derived from Minho was supposed to cure her right? How can I… accept that?

"It's not your fault… you did everything you could…"

"That's the third time you told me that in front of Shai! And how many more before her?!" I said in a fit of rage, throwing Ava back in shock.

I bite my mouth to stop sobbing, but I cannot hold it if I continue seeing Shai like that. I go out of the building, feeling empty. 100%, empty.

I just keep walking, ignoring the people there, not noticing the sky was already dark. I just keep walking, and walking, and walking…

I got to the apartment where I stay. I find a step hidden in the shadow and sit down there, at that point I start sobbing. It eventually turns into hiccups and the tears keep running out of my eyes.

Too many failures yet there was no definite solution, is this what I get for betraying Thomas? Am I condemned to forever be trapped like that? Am I doomed to fail and be hated?

"_Mom… everyone… I'm sorry… I wish you were here now…"_

A gust of wind, and a wish seems to be answered…

I feel like someone I know is watching me.

I look up and nearly gasped at the sight.

Yes, someone is watching me.

But I did not expect that person.

"_Thomas…?"_

* * *

**(Thomas)**

"All right I'm in position at the catwalk."

"Copy that Gally. The target should be back from the lab by now. Find her quickly."

With that monocular over there, finding the target should not be a problem.

Yes, I am saying target, I don't want to be conflicted right now. Bury emotions deep into the limbo to maximize efficiency. As for me, I was staying under a five-story apartment near the train station with my hood on and surgical mask worn, making me look just like everybody else down the street. Poor these people though, the Last City is going to go through one hell of a ride tonight and I hate innocents crossing the field, but it's war right? Innocent people always die in war just like in where they called Middle East or Mexico hundreds of years ago.

She, on the other hand, was anything but innocent. She betrayed us for some cure that cannot be found, especially by using us. How stupid and callous was she? But deep down, I don't want anything bad to happen, I just want to save everyone.

"All right Thomas, I got Tango on my sight, she's walking fast down the street, five blocks from you. Wait until I tell you to move.

"Copy that."

A bit later, Gally reports. "I can see her. She's turning left two blocks from you.

"Get down quick and keep track of me."

"Got it."

I follow her, wondering why she would be walking that fast. She gets to an apartment and sits down the steps.

Then, to my surprise, she starts crying.

"_Teresa…"_

What is going on? What is happening to her? I could not help but question myself. Just seeing her that weak and defeated hurts me so much that I forget my mission for a bit.

Was she feeling guilt just like I and Gally?

Was she…

_Quit it!_ I force myself to forget. I walk down the street and take off my mask. I stare at her and she notices me.

She seems really surprised. Good, Tango bit it.

I turn around, guiding her to follow me.

"I'm drawing her to the train station, get in position now Gally." I report; "Copy that I'm running." was his reply.

I keep playing cat and mouse with her until she gets down near the spot.

"Thomas, I'm in position."

"Good. Get ready." At that point I go out, finally meeting her again. A bad reunion I say. Her face still had stains of her tears, she probably just hastily wiped them.

"Thomas…" She said in a low tone.

"Hi Teresa…" I said back, between tender and icy. Heavy tension fills the air.

"You shouldn't be here… If Janson finds out-"

"I won't be here long." I walk towards her. "It's just… I want to see you…"

I decide to get to the point. "I just want to ask you something… do you regret it? For what you did to us?"

She sighed, zoning in and out, clearly feeling uneasy.

"Back then I wasn't… I just thought I was doing something right… but now, I'm not sure anymore…"

"I regret it every day… But there's no going back for me… I'll keep doing it… I'll keep running down the path I've chosen…" There is clear pain in her voice. Was it true guilt, or just fake?

Just leave it for later.

"All right…" I whisper and whistle.

Teresa now knows why I am really here. Before she reacts Gally comes out, takes out a tranquilizer dart and stabs her hand from behind with it.

She looks at me with shock, gasping out a single word before she blacks out.

"_Thomas…"_

I catch her and bridal carry her.

"Still has a soft spot for her Thomas? It's not gonna be good."

"Shut up Gally. Now let's go back."

We go to the tunnel and took a long walk down there. I look at her sleeping form, noticing the similarity between this and when we found her at the elevator. This sinful girl is just like everybody else when she's sleeping, just as innocent-looking as ever. Just how could she do that to all of us?

"Gally?"

"What?"

"You and me, we both had a change of heart… do you think Teresa can do that too?"

He stared at me for a moment before answering, filled with doubt.

"I don't know… that depends on her."

* * *

**Voila! Done! Hope all of you enjoy it.**

**Please review my story so I can continue writing this. I've put all of my will on this project so please support me by liking and reviewing, this really means a lot to me. Also I cannot know what to improve on the next chapters if no one gives and ideas.**

**Until next time, out.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello everyone, I hope you guys are handling yourselves well, COVID-19 is not a joke (btw the Maze Runner series is about the virus, ironic no?).**

**I just hope you guys can review the chapters, not just simply read them as I am busy with online exams right now and I can't find enough motivation to write further chapters without support from you guys. Please understand I am not asking for attention, I am truly writing this with all my heart.**

**Let's read!**

* * *

**Chapter 3: Hatred**

* * *

**(Gally)**

"Thomas?"

"What?"

"What did you feed her with? She's pretty heavy!"

No offense to any girls who might be hearing it and be annoyed with the echoing inside the tunnel, but Teresa is definitely heavier than she looks, probably anyone is the same as well. I might be bigger, heavier and my arms might be stronger, but weightlifting approximately 110 pounds is still a hassle; good thing that girl is sleeping soundly at the moment or my ears are going to suffer badly.

Thomas was, with no other appropriate word to say, flustered. Shocked, even. He attempts to punch me but I dodged, it was no easy because I was carrying Teresa this time around after he told me to switch the handler.

"You're an asshole Gally, don't call a girl heavy, you might lose your teeth."

"You gave up carrying her too early." I chuckle, managing to have a good laugh is always good, especially in this very moment.

"Tsk. Stop joking around idiot. Besides, we need to get out of this sewer, it stinks."

"I guess you're right, but it does not stink as hard as love."

"Shut up…"

We keep walking as fast as we can until we see the hole.

"This is it. I'll go in first."

I grab the ladder and climb up first.

"Ready the chair, we have the traitor!" I shout to everyone inside the room as soon as I get out of the hole, then I grab the still unconscious Teresa up while Thomas climbs up by himself.

Brenda walks into the room, a rope in her hand. "You got her?"

"There she is." I point at her. "Could have been a Sleeping Beauty if she did not betray us."

"Bring her in, I'll tie her."

"No, we don't do that." Thomas protests. "Put that rope away Brenda."

"We know you love her Thomas." Jorge says from behind Brenda. "But she's a dick to everyone else. Besides, she's our only shot to get Minho back."

Thomas sighs in defeat. I know this is hard for you Thomas, but please think about the bigger picture.

After Thomas puts her in the chair Frypan placed, Brenda ties her hands and legs. The Runner noticeably try to look away.

Finally, it's my turn.

"All right, let's wake the beauty up."

I kick her leg, causing her to stir. We watch her slowly waking up like eyeing a feather flying down to the ground. She faintly groans and murmured, wondering where she was. Teresa tries to shake her body but it was useless. She was stuck there as a prisoner.

"Good evening." Welcoming her was hateful and angry and disgusted eyes of everyone she betrayed, excluding me of course, the betraying part anyway. No wonder why she was shocked when she saw me, alive and as unhinged as ever thanks to my not-so-handsome face and clean-shaven head.

"Gally?!"

"That's right." I take initiative of the interrogation. "Here's how it's gonna go. We're gonna ask you a few questions, and you're gonna tell us exactly what we need to know." I grab a chair. "To start off, where's Minho?"

She stutters, her eyes dash to Thomas. "Guys, seriously don't you think-"

I slam the chair between her and Thomas. "Don't look at him! Why are you looking at him? Look at me. He's not gonna help you." That does the job, but she is still reluctant though.

"Look we know you have Minho in the building. Where?"

Knowing there was no chance to ignore, she relents. "He's with the others, sub level three."

"How many others?" Newt speaks from behind me.

"28." She answers, eyes still looking at me. Good job bitch.

Brenda's turn now. "We can make that work."

"No-no, you don't understand; the whole levels are restricted. Y-You can't get in without a thumbprint ID-"

"That's why you're coming with us." Thomas speaks up. Teresa is still hesitating. Well, things are not going anywhere. Time for a little boost.

"Well I don't know." I raise my voice a little. "We don't necessary need her. Right?" I go and grab a surgical knife. "Not all of her. We just need her fingers!"

"Gally back off." Thomas tries to stop me.

"Are you an idiot? I guarantee she's treated a lot worse to Minho!"

"That's not the plan, back the hell off." Woah, I did not expect Thomas to curse. His serious glare is intimidating enough to let me know he's taking control now. I accept naturally, Thomas grabs the knife from me.

"It won't make a difference." Teresa sighs. "Do whatever you want, but you guys won't get through the front door. The sensors would pick you up-"

"We know. We're tagged." Thomas says. He grabs the chair I left and sit down, face-to-face with that bitch. "Look, Minho, Newt, Gally, Frypan, Aris, everyone else in the Glade and everyone WCKD captured, we both threw their chances at life in the past. We both watched a lot of them try to survive and die." His straightforward words hit me once again that the two people in front of me, one with us, one not, used to work for WCKD and treat us like shit. I certainly fell a chill running down my spine, and Newt and Frypan probably felt that too from the look of their faces. "I got it enough, and I am sure you're feeling that too."

Wait wait wait Thomas, are you trying to get through to her?

"I can see it in your eyes, don't lie."

"What the hell is he doing?" Newt whispers to me.

But it may be working?

Teresa glances at everyone behind Thomas, then him, and eyes down, her head slightly lowered. That subtly says it all.

"He's trying to get through her. I think she's feeling it, the guilt." I whisper back. "I saw it when we captured her."

"I don't believe it."

The whole room becomes quiet, Thomas does not say anything to let Teresa take all the words into her heart.

"Maybe…" She says, denying it but not completely. "But as I told you, you can't get in."

Thomas gets out of the chair and lowers next to her right. "The sensors are WCKD's property. You're gonna help us break in, and you're gonna help us with that too." He shows her the knife; the indication was clear.

"Release the ropes Brenda." I tell her.

"Told ya." I tell Newt, he just rolls his eyes in defeat.

"Maybe I could turn into a Crank now and kill her for your amusement?" He jokes.

"Not a good one Newt." Indeed.

Brenda gives a hard look at Teresa as she pulls out her knife. "Do anything stupid, and we will kill you." She threatens Teresa as she starts working with the ropes.

For some reason Teresa seems surprised.

"You're not sick?"

Brenda stops. "What?"

"You're not sick anymore, how?"

"Doesn't matter to you. You're not one of us anymore."

* * *

"I'm first." I volunteer to be the first one as I just want to get rid of the damn sensors as soon as I can. Teresa has tied her hair up, taken off her jacket and rolled the sleeves up. I grab another chair and sit down in front of her near the table.

"Do it quick you traitor." I tell her.

Taken back at first, she quickly throws it back. "Don't forget I have the knife now."

"We all have bigger ones." I grab the handle of the knife in my pouch to intimidate.

"Cut that out, we don't have much time." Jorge reminds us.

Teresa carefully creates a small line in the neck, a brief sting runs through my body. She wipes the blood with a piece of cloth and grabs a pair of tweezers.

She warns me. "This is gonna sting more than a cut."

"Just do it." I growl.

She slowly put the tweezers into the wound. As she said, this causes more pain but it is still nothing too serious. I can feel something twitching inside my neck, something small. It keeps running up as she pulls it out, and it comes out eventually. A small piece of plastic with some circle linings and straight ones, covered in my blood. She then stitches up the cut.

"So that's the thing WCKD planted on all of us when we were young huh?" I say as I inspect it. That thing was like a leverage inside my neck; now it's out, I feel pretty relieved. "Chop-chop, you still have several left."

"I'm trying as fast as I can, just stay still." She says.

"Never thought you are the one helping us." I unknowingly start a conversation. "I never really like you, but this is just a bad twist of fate."

"I know you don't like me Gally, and I only do this as you guys told me to."

""Told to"… Why not "need me to"?" Brenda cuts in. "This would have been easier right, if only you did not sell us all to WCKD. Mary would have been doing this right now."

"I did what I thought was right. I don't need judging."

"So why were you hesitating?" I ask her. She was taken back a bit. "Just moments ago, and at the city too."

Teresa does not answer, instead she keeps stitching up my wound.

"Gally…" She murmurs after several seconds of quietness. "Do you feel anything hard… after you shot Chuck?"

My turn to be taken back. Technically I don't need to answer to her, why should I? But doing it now wouldn't hurt one bit right? Besides I was the leader, and the leader needs to listen and answers anything concerning my group, right?

I can also feel Thomas' eyes on us too; ironically, we talked about that last night as well.

"A lot… it lessens over time, but I still feel it."

"Can you sleep well?"

I stare at the wall far away from me, realizing my eyes were becoming sleepy. "Not always…"

"The same thing to me as well." Was her cryptic response. Should I take it as the truth? Whatever, I don't care.

"I still don't trust you."

"I don't ask anyone to. There's no going back for me now."

"Good. You know your place." And it stops.

After a while, she finishes.

"There, all done."

"All right. No thank-you by the way." I stand up, grab a piece of cloth to wipe the blood myself. "You're next Frypan."

* * *

"She likes that." I say, watching the stained cloth that I wipe my dripping blood from the neck with.

"Yeah I guess you're right." Frypan says, throwing his own to the tray.

Newt throws us some body armor after getting the surgery. "Here. Put it on."

"Thanks Newt." I don the armor. Lawrence's force and WCKD have been fighting each other for some time, which leads to dead bodies, which leads to weapon and armor looting. We managed to find three good ones from those who were shot in the head, three helmets from others, enough for the infiltration.

"Hey." Frypan grabs Newt. "How are you doing?"

"What? You mean **it**?"

"Yeah, show us."

Newt briefly glances at Thomas, who was having the tracker removed by Teresa. He turns his back on them and rolls his sleeves up. The infection has spread through his entire right arm, which means his time is running out.

"It's getting worse…" He murmurs.

"You run a lot, and with the pressure of breaking Minho out, the infection seems to be accelerating." Frypan points it out.

"You can still stay behind Newt, let Frypan go with us."

"Nah, I gotta go in, Minho needs to see Thomas and I first, we're closer." Newt puts the armor on as he speaks.

"That's a little bit harsh." Frypan pouted.

"No offense." Newt winked at Frypan.

"Maybe I'll get the serum from Brenda, she still has a small pint with her. We'll give you that as soon as you start getting worse." I suggest.

"You don't have to." Newt denies. Screw you Newt, you are such a stubborn idiot. "The virus' still manageable now, I still have time. I take it, I must have some rest and I can't help anyone or get Minho out; I carry it, I'll be tempted. Minho's our priority number one, I can't let myself waver."

"No one wants to see you die Newt." Brenda tries to get to him, she takes the serum from her pocket and put it to Newt's hand. "We've lost too many friends already."

"How about Minho?" No one dares to say something after that, even I. He sighs, giving back the serum to her. "Gear up."

Brenda keeps eyeing him wearing the armor, she waits until he was focused on gearing himself up, at which point she silently goes to me and secretly places a serum in my pocket.

"Brenda?" I wonder what she was doing.

"Take it. Newt's not listening to us."

"But-"

"We trust you." Frypan whispers. He pats my shoulder. "Don't let it down."

To say I was surprised was an understatement. I was stunned. Just a year ago I screwed things up at the Glade, and now suddenly I got everyone's trust back? I wish this was not a joke.

"Why not Thomas?"

"He'll give it immediately." She explains. A good point, with that over-caring nature of his, Thomas would just take Newt out of action and Newt definitely doesn't want it right now.

"OK…"

Suddenly something wild is going on between Thomas and Teresa, he throws himself out of the chair, seemingly arguing with her.

* * *

**(Thomas)**

"Try to relax, this is gonna sting."

"Just get this over with." I pull down the collar of my shirt, allowing Teresa to take the sensors off. I wince a bit from the pain but otherwise I was okay. I don't want to say anything now, nor feel the mood to. I just keep quiet to let Teresa do her job.

"She's looking good." She speaks up. "Healthy. How do you even get the serum?"

Really? You're trapped in here with us and you still think about the serum? I almost exploded but I held back my anger for a bit.

"What are you talking about?" I ask her gently.

"Brenda. I don't think she is even gonna be alive. When was the last treatment?

"With the Right Arm… Last time I saw you."

"But that was a year ago…"

I got fed up of her, clearly she still hasn't changed. As soon as she got it out I get up harshly.

"Thomas that's impossible! She should have turned by now. There's no way she could possibly be-"

"That's enough!" I growl and walk away.

"You don't believe me?" There she is, acting like a hypocrite. She lost all of our trust after that and she's still asking that?

"You expect I will?" She does not reply. "You made your choice.

* * *

**(Gally)**

"Is everything okay over here?"

"Yeah… yeah we're done." Thomas goes away to gear up. I turn to Teresa-

Oh, she's covering her right side, trying to grab a knife? I'm not gonna let it slide. I quickly grab her right arm.

"Nice try." Then I lead her away.

"Gally please, let me talk-"

"You don't have the right to talk, not now!" I warn her as I push her near the hole.

"It's about Thomas' blood! It can be the cure to the Flare!"

"Stop that bullshit!" I press her shoulders, causing her to groan slightly in pain. She naturally grabs my hand and try to pry it off.

"Think about it Gally, there's billions of people out die dying, needing of a cure. Thomas' blood might be the key! Ask me how could Bren-"

"Shut up! Don't use it as an excuse!" I shout, losing my temper, but still small enough to not let the others notice. "You and WCKED ruined our lives and many others', and you all say you do that for the cure! I don't care if there is a cure or not, WCKD must be gone for good! And after that we'll deal with you." I say the last sentence as a raging whisper.

"Are we ready?" Newt speaks from behind. I turn around to see Newt, Thomas, Frypan, Brenda and Jorge ready.

"We all are."

Thomas goes inside the room and faces towards us. "All right you know what to do. We'll do this right, we get Minho out, Lawrence and his militia will destroy WCKD." Everyone nods, expect Teresa of course.

Everything was clear, we are going to do it, no matter the cost.

I push the KSG to Teresa's back.

"Go!"

* * *

**Preparation's complete with a lot of temper explosion (lol).**

**Sorry for a short chapter, I leave the action for the next ones.**

**I think I would explode though as I don't get any replies. Please review my story, it would help me a lot.**

**Anyway, hope you enjoy reading and I'll see you guys in my next chapter.**


	4. Chapter 4

**All right, it's time!**

**In the last chapters we see things through Thomas, Teresa and Gally, now it's time for Newt to get the spotlight.**

**Hope you all enjoy reading this chapter!**

* * *

**Chapter 4: Restless**

* * *

**(Newt)**

The tunnel was as stinky as always; it disgusts me so much. Daily wastes, chemical wastes and so on, and with the infection in my right arm, it is not an enjoyable walk to the Last City. Since he was running and walking so much, Winston was in the final stage in just less than a day; it was a miracle I was able to survive more than he ever was. At least my whole team is with me at the moment so if I ever need help, they would lend me a hand in a heartbeat.

Both Alby and Gally told me I was a persistent idiot back in the Glade and I know they are right. I always put the current problems above my interests for my friends since they are the only people I am close to and I dread losing any of them, which happened to many of us already. Taking Brenda's serum will drive the Flare off for some time but then I would have to stay in Lawrence's stronghold as it will make me unable to do anything but rest for several hours. Minho needs us right now, everyone of us possible, and I am not sitting out of this no matter what.

I just hope we can break him out quickly and get the serum administered to my body, with that, I can stay alive for some time and have some last words with him-

Wait…

Brenda…

She was cured, not showing any symptoms at all. She is not a carrier as no one around us was infected for an entire year now after she was cured. I did tell her that but we could not find any concrete solutions. It might be she is an Immune, but then why would she be infected in first place? Does she have a special immunity that makes her infection disappear? Not possible either since she was not an Immune. That day Thomas came with Mary to have his blood-

His blood?!

Wait, so it was Thomas' blood?

That was it!

Brenda's only remaining serum was derived from Thomas' blood thanks to Mary, so-

"Hey."

_Huh?_

I turned to my left, the source of the sudden word.

"What?"

"Are you okay?" Frypan whispers to me. "You seem lost to yourself."

Haizz, that idiot, at least I was not coughing.

"Nah I'm fine."

"You sure?" He was uncertain, which he has every reason to.

"Yeah yeah I'm fine for now." I reassure him, he relents.

Phew, no messes were made.

So…

So…

…

_What?_

What was I thinking about?

What the hell was I thinking about before Frypan asked me?!

At the same time, I feel slightly numb on my right side and a minor headache, also on my right side.

"_Ah fuck…!"_

The infection's spreading!

I start losing short-term memory!

Just as I thought yesterday, my brain's getting screwed now. I nervously look at everyone to try to recall their names and faces from my memory, luckily I was still able to remember all.

"Frypan…" I call him in a moment of panic, keeping my voice low.

"What?" He wonders.

"If I don't make it, and Brenda does not give me the serum in time… don't hesitate to kill me."

"No-"

"Promise me! All of you must do it!"

He freezes for a moment before regaining composure.

"All right, but that's only for the worst case. You will be fine Newt don't worry."

"Thanks Frypan." But I just say it without thinking, my mind was on the worst possible outcome of this night-

NO!

No no no…

No, I cannot be negative right now! I need to stay positive now, no matter how hard it is. For Minho, and for everyone.

* * *

We eventually get to the subway system, a short walk and we get to the door leading to the stairs to climb up.

"All right we're now close to ground level. Time to split up and blend in." Thomas says, everyone nods.

"Good luck." Frypan and Brenda wish us luck and go down to find another way to climb up.

"Thomas, lead the way." I tell him. Teresa and he go up first, Gally and I follow behind. Just a few stairs and we are near the door.

Thomas takes out his radio and contacts the other team. "Frypan, Brenda, this is Thomas, we're ready to infiltrate; did you find a way to go up?"

"We're still finding a way but it shouldn't be a problem." Brenda responds. "Wish you were able to find alternative routes before you captured Teresa."

"Sorry, we did not think that far. Contact us when you're ready and we'll proceed."

"Roger that."

The four- no, the three of us stay still, waiting for the other team to get to their insertion point.

"This is the night to remember guys." Gally speaks up, starting a little chat.

"Can't believe we've gone this far, we're all just kids back in the Glade then." I reminiscence. From clueless, memoryless children unknowingly put to death for three years to this, I honestly cannot think of how my life could have been had Thomas not been transferred to the Glade.

"Yeah…" Thomas smiles warmly. "We were all the same, no memory to remember, no parents to remember, only us, together. All of us…" He sadly turns his face to Teresa, slightly. "You could have been one of us too…"

Man, you really love her don't you?

She sighs, lowering her face down.

"You don't know your past, I got it back. And sometimes I wish I didn't…" Her voice slightly cracks at the last words.

Thomas lets out a deep sigh, his face loosens to a sad look. "No. Not just you." He turns around to face her this time. "I got it back too, most of it anyways." He sweeps his hair to one side. "And I couldn't help but think how bloody my hands are. I'd like to wipe it out."

"Good for you, but then what?"

"What do you mean?" I could not help but wonder.

"You get Minho out, then what? Cranks will find you one day, millions of them. And there's a chance we can undo it, to bring their lives back."

"By sacrificing countless others?!" Gally growls. "Thomas told us what you and your mom went through, but you can't use it to justify what you did!"

"I know…" was her weak reply.

"We used to like you as a friend. A good one." These dagger-like words from me struck all of us. A reminder how good she used to be, how friendly we all were. The boys all stare to the unknown abyss while the only girl has to keep her tears from falling out.

"All right we're in position." Brenda says through the radio. Thomas wearily turns it on.

"Copy that. Time to insert."

"Roger."

Thomas lowers the mask, grabs Teresa and points her to the door.

"Lead the way."

She gives one last sad look at us before peeking out. She and Thomas go out when it is clear.

"I'm going." After fifteen seconds I go out of the door and start blending in, not forgetting to do a fist-pump with Gally and put my masks down. Our plan is, overall, pretty simple. Once we get to the ground we split up into three to avoid possible attention; Thomas will lead Teresa, pretending as her bodyguard, Gally and I sneak in separately, we would then meet up at sub level one and continue to go down. Teresa acts as a guinea pig and a Trojan horse; if there are guards down we, we blast our way in; then we break Minho and the others out. Frypan, Jorge and Brenda will handle the getaway.

Masquerading a WCKD bodyguard has one benefit: no direct attention from the citizens. They just ignore me and keep walking, not thinking how a lone bodyguard is doing some god-know shit in the streets without any backup. It reminds me of how WCKD looked at me after they attacked the Right Arm at that horrible night.

I get out of the station and walk to the streets. Right at the second block nearby the subway stairs I see a commotion: several WCKD personnel holding a Crank hostage. I stand back a bit and get myself near the corner to pretend to guard the spot from a fair distance. I just hope I do not cough.

Suddenly several Cranks attack them from behind, right under the stairs, they must have been running up. The people nearby run away in fear.

"Dammit, there's a small horde down there, call backup!"

"Spread out, see if others are breached or not!" They must be referring to another sections of subway stairs. A small group run out.

"_Now's the chance!"_ I run them from behind, they are so busy with running that they do not notice me trailing alone. That was pretty funny to be honest. The group is running in a straight line which helps me as well as the building we need to break in is several blocks ahead.

Just a little bit after that the building is on my sight. I slowly stop my running, letting them run and the citizens to focus on them, then I go back to sneaking mode, slowly making my way to the west side of the structure.

Man, so many guards are there, I have to act well. I carefully but urgently walk to the door. The two bodyguards are just standing there and I cannot see them thanks to their masks, but there is no time to wonder. I walk through the door and pass through the detectors with little problem. The fake IDs work wonderfully as Lawrence's team simply changed the code and picture to match with one of the guards in there who was still alive but was not working at the moment we breach in. One disadvantage though: little time to do anything.

The lobby is really large so it was difficult at first to find Thomas, but with Teresa sticking out like a sore thumb it would be no problem. And sure enough, I saw them walking through the front door.

I close my distance on them and there we go, we meet finally. I nod, signalling him to keep going. We take the stairs on the right to the parking lot and keep going. As we do a guard walk beside us, separated by the glasses. That fast walking to keep up the pace tells us it was Gally; he jogs through an open door and stays ahead of us, not forgetting to nod to indicate he is a friendly.

"Open it."

A locked door on the way, under Thomas's order she takes out her ID card and sweeps it through the reader. The screen flashed green with the line "Access Approved", her information and the door unlocks. We go in, checking the stairs to make sure no one was there. Thomas orders Teresa to go down but Gally stops them.

"Wait. I can get in here." He checks the control board box and starts prying it out with a portable drill taken from a small bag he carries along.

"Thomas, check the lower levels."

"Copy that." He goes down. I suddenly got a headache again, and this time it is worse. I pull up the mask and cough repeatedly, it takes me about ten seconds to get over it, and when I look up, I realize Teresa has been watching me all the time.

"Newt…?" She says in a worried tone. I look away.

"Frypan come in. How are you doing?" Thomas calls Frypan while running up back to the door we went through earlier to check.

"Yeah, yeah I'm getting there. Tell Minho hi for me."

"Hang in there buddy. Brenda, what's your status?"

"Status is I'm working on it."

"Copy. Make sure you're ready and you're in."

"Don't worry, you know I'm gonna be there."

"Jorge, report."

"Still working on it."

"Be quick."

"You too. Good luck."

Gally finally breaks the lock. He opens the panel and checks for some ropes.

"This will work." He pulls out some kind of device and attaches it to the cord.

"What are you doing?" I wonder.

"This will open a backdoor to let Lawrence take control of the CCTV system. We'll walk in like ghosts."

"From Glade leader to electric guy huh?" I joke.

"They made this, not me. Watch yourself Newt."

"I know…"

Gally sticks the device to the back of the panel with the adhesive tape part rolled around and closes it. "All right let's go."

We hurriedly run down two stairs below to the control room, which is where Minho and the others are supposedly kept according to Teresa.

"Get ready." I say. The three of us ready our shotguns, aiming at the door. As soon as it opens, Thomas fired a restraining round at the guard opening the door, immobilizing him. We storm in and take out any remaining guards on the way. After it is done I open one random door to find five male teenagers taken as hostages, they were scared until I open my mask to reveal I am just like one of them.

"Come on let's go." They all go out at once. Thomas and Gally open the rest of the doors and free the remaining 23.

Or actually, only 20.

"I count only twenty-five, where's the remaining three?"

"Three of us are held inside the vault! They tried to get out but failed so they are locked here. They'll be experimented soon." One of the kidnappers says, at the same time we hear banging on the steel door, confirming what he said was right. "This place used to store the serum but when they tried to escape, they accidentally destroyed all of it inside. WCKD said they were too valuable to kill at the moment so they turned the vault into a prison box for them." Well, at least Brenda still has one vial, lucky us. They then tie the guards up.

Gally grabs one of the guards in the collar and pulls out his handgun.

"The vault, how do we get in?" Gally presses it to his throat.

The guard remains defiant. "You can't…"

"I know…" He bashes his gun on the guard's head, knocking him out. He then opens the bag, wears protective glasses and takes out the iron cutter to work on the door panel. He says to the remaining captives. "Hold tight, it will take some time to cut through this door. Stay still and I'll break you guys out."

"Thomas, where's Minho?" I ask him after checking the cells. I look at him and his expression was clear without his next sentence.

"He's not here…"

I run to the steel door. "Minho are you there?"

"We're not Minho, no one in here is Minho." One of them says.

"Shit…" We both turn to Teresa, the only one who might know. "Where's Minho?" She starts checking the computer and after a while info on Minho comes up.

"He's been transferred to the medical wing. Thomas, that's the other side of the building."

"Which means they start experimenting on him, we don't have much time." I conclude.

"Okay, take me to him now." Thomas orders her.

This is it, the shot to rescue Minho. I immediately call shotgun. "I'm going."

"No Newt, stay here and get the serum with Gally."

"You can't do this on your own, Minho's our priority right?"

"Hey! Stop wasting time!" Gally speaks up. "They will be coming down. Rescue Minho now, I'll lead the kids out!"

"Okay, let's go." Thomas says after some hesitation.

"Hey Greenie." Thomas turns around after Gally calls him. "Good luck. You too Newt."

He nods. "You too Gally." We finally go out and walk back to the ground level.

"Where's the lift?" I press the barrel to Teresa's back.

"Near the south door." She leads the way to near the south entrance and to the elevator. Thomas clicks the button to go up but the elevator is taking its time. After several impatient clicks from Thomas plus ten seconds, it finally opens. We go in, click the number 20 and wait for the door to close.

It is closing, and nearly does-

A hand stops it!

"_What?!"_ I briefly panic.

"Hold it." It was Janson! He sneaks his way in and stands on Teresa's left. The betrayer tries to keep her face composed as she is the only one not wearing any kind of masks and Janson could read her face. The man who killed Mary and captured Minho and countless others was right in front of us. We subconsciously grip our shotguns tightly, eyes filled with rage.

"You're working late." He starts talking. "That's what I like about you Teresa. No matter how bleak things are you just, you never give up. Times like this, you need a friend you can count on."

"I'll keep that in mind." She answers awkwardly. We all hate that guy no matter which side we are on I assume.

"There's one thing you should know… since we're friends to another." Friends like this are hardly ones. "Thomas is here."

_Shit…_

A long silence inside the elevator, we remain silent and Teresa does not talk; she turns to face him after pretending to be shocked.

"A surveillance picked him up outside the walls." So that was when the sensors activated two days ago. For God's sake this guy could have captured us right on that day but he kept it as a secret to avoid conflicting Teresa?

"Ava didn't want you to know but there's a chance that he might try to contact you, and if he does…" We already did idiot, but you know it right? "I'd like to think that I'd be your first call."

"You're gonna kill him?"

"Would that be a problem?" Teresa does not answer, instead the elevator doors do by opening.

"This is me." She goes out, we follow behind her, leaving that bastard behind. But before that Thomas intentionally bumps slightly into his right shoulder, nearly freaking me out. Guess we all cannot professionally hold our emotions after all. Hope that cabrón ignores it.

We continue walking through the corridor.

"Thomas you have to listen to me, that kind of serum won't save Newt. Even if you manage to find some it can only buy him some time-"

I cut her off. "Just ignore her, she's trying to mess with your head". I am not even sure which side she is currently on anymore, she just keeps switching and messing with our minds. Do all girls in the world do that?

I drag her to the door of the General Laboratories. _"So that's where they keep Minho huh…"_

"Thomas listen! You know what's going on out there, people are dying, the world's dying. There's something inside you that I cannot understand."

"Open it." Thomas ignores her. She does so but she doesn't shut up.

"If you let me run some tests, I promise to protect you."

"Yeah? Like you protected Minho?!" He erupts, throwing his masks off. What the hell are you doing Thomas?! You can be spotted!

"Thomas stop!" I try to talk him down but he does not listen.

"How many more people do they have to round up, torture, kill? Huh? When the hell does it stop?!"

"It stops when we find a cure."

"There is no goddamn cure!" Thomas stares harshly at her, who does not seem to be giving up yet. That returning glare says it all.

"Don't waste your breath Teresa." Dammit! We're spotted! I realize Janson was just several steps behind us, aiming his gun at us. We both pull our guns on him. "He made his choice long ago."

"Drop it kid!" Guards coming on our flanks.

Thomas quickly grabs Teresa and holds her hostage.

"Back up, tell them to back up!"

"Hey Thomas, come on!" His calm voice unnerves me, like he doesn't take this situation seriously. "I've known you longer than you can remember, you're not gonna shoot her."

"You think so?" He presses the gun closer to Teresa's temple as a warning sign.

"Okay." He is still uncaring of Thomas' threat. "Come on then." He lowers his gun and walks towards us. "Shoot her."

"_Dammit, he doesn't care about Teresa!"_ I realize it. "Thomas!"

"Prove me wrong." Janson keeps walking, the guards corner us more and more. "Shoot her." That son of a bitch! What am I going to do now?! Just one more second and we are all going to-

In all of a sudden, Teresa knocks off Thomas' hand, turns around and throws us to the corridor and turns on the alarm nearby. the fire safety door slides down, separating us from her, the alarm predictably goes off.

"Clear! Clear!" Janson and his squad open fire at us, which was thankfully stopped by the bulletproof glass but he shot very close to Teresa, nearly hitting her; Thomas briefly screams her name in distress. Janson runs to the door and tries to knock it but of course, it was for nothing. We exchange glares at Janson and Teresa.

This girl is really unpredictable. Is she helping us? Does her face say something? I don't know, but at least we got some valuable time thanks to her.

As cover is now gone I throw off my mask and run after Thomas.

"What the hell are you doing Thomas?! You shouldn't have thrown the mask off!" I berate him. How could you be this careless Thomas?

"Sorry my bad."

"Now you say "my bad"? We're fucking screwed!"

"Only if we wait here, come on! They must still be keeping Minho in here!"

I take out the radio. "Frypan, Brenda come in!"

"What's happening?" She asks.

"We're compromised!"

"What? How-"

"Get them out now! Double time!" I basically shout to the radio.

"Dammit… All right we're doing it. How about Minho?"

"Still finding him but we are almost at the lab."

"Then you better do it quick. Brenda out."

We keep running the entire hallway but I pull him back, stopping him in time.

"What?!"

"We're in the lab, time to blend in. The scientists won't recognize us unless you are stupid enough to go loud." I say between heavy breaths.

"Yeah… I guess you're right…" We regain normal breaths; Thomas takes a peek out to wait for the moment.

"All right…"

"Go."

* * *

**Part one of the infiltration is not done yet and they already cause quite a blast (lol).**

**See you guys in the next chapter.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Not much to say to be honest, just a little thank-you for reading my story.**

**Hope you enjoy reading this chapter!**

* * *

**Chapter 5: Extraction**

* * *

**(Brenda)**

"What's it called uh… Jorge?"

"What do you want to do Frypan?"

"Increase."

Newt eyes him, incredulous.

"Well, say "call"."

"Okay…" He puts five bullets to the table. "Call."

"Your hand seems good Frypan." I note his daring move. He just smiles.

Frypan, Jorge, Newt and I, the four of us who are not kidnapping Teresa at the moment, are playing, which I hopefully think it is true, the first poker game in the history of the post-Flare era. Before I met the Gladers I was taught to play this game by Jorge and the others from my old group; they said the old world used to play this game a lot and it was an important aspect of that life. At first we lost a lot but then our skill increased over time and we eventually won back one by one. Now is the time to teach our new friends to play this game, or rather, bully their inexperience.

Jorge takes the face-up 10 of hearts and throws in seven bullets before declaring. "Raise."

Everyone looks at him, surprised at how much be bet. His skill is really good to the point I cannot read his face to see if he was faking his hand or not. After a while I decided to test myself.

I take the last card of the final round and declare. "All in." I throw all of my bullets into the pot.

"Too risky Brenda." Newt comments. I just keep quiet, not saying anything.

"Your turn Newt." I remind him. He fidgets for a while until he slaps the face-down cards.

"Fold." He sits back and crosses his arm.

"Damn Newt, you wet your pants?" Frypan jokes.

"Let's see if you're any better."

"All right, why not? Call!" He also throws nine bullets in.

"Showdown." Jorge says, everyone except Newt will now reveal their hand.

Jorge shows his first. 6 to 10. "Straight."

A normal hand for him. Frypan reveals his hand soon after, but uh…

"Three of a kind. Lower than Straight dude." I note and he groans in dismay.

"Told you Frypan, know 'em when to fold 'em." He throws his hand up. 5,8,9 and two 7s. "I only got Pair."

He turns to me now. "All right Brenda, you're up."

I don't show anything, but I know I will win now.

"Don't feel bad folks."

I reveal my hand. A 7 and four Jacks. "Four of a kind. I win." I smile and take all the bullets in the pot.

"Damn girl." Frypan whistles.

"You're good Brenda." Jorge smiles, I high-five with him.

"Thanks."

"You play poker so well Brenda." Newt compliments.

"Well, all thanks to Jorge and my friends from my group." I tell him. "We kill time by doing a lot of things. Talking and playing and drinking-"

"Woah woah woah you don't drink that well, stop boasting." Jorge abruptly cuts in.

I punch his shoulders lightly. "I am, I'm not boasting. I actually did some rounds before but I know the limits though."

"Yeah, those few times I had to carry you to the bed since you're too drunk to even say properly. You're not old enough to handle **that** much." He chuckles after seeing me pouting in protest.

It takes me a while to realize Newt and Frypan stare at me in shock as if they had never seen a girl doing the things boys usually do.

"What?" I wonder.

"Uh…Uhm…" Newt briefly stutters. "You know, back in the maze the people in there were all boys. All of us, uh, until Teresa came and so did trouble. We practically have never seen a girl for years, or we did but we got our memories erased."

"We have little idea how different boys and girls are before." Frypan adds in.

"A lot of things definitely. But girls can do things boys can too."

"Such as… drinking alcohol?"

"Yep!" I say confidently.

They can only nod in unison. "Uhm-hmm…"

The room then gets quiet as no one is talking, until Frypan breaks the silence.

"So uh… tonight we are going to break in the city and rescue Minho right?"

"Yes. So what?" I say.

"What do we do after that?"

The question hit all of us in the heart.

"Do you guys ever think of it?"

"We'll settle in a new place and we will live there for the rest of our lives."

"Well…" Newt murmurs. "Not for me…" He holds his right wrist.

"Newt, don't." Frypan says to him, trying to lighten his mood.

"Look, there is no cure for the Flare, and even if I have it I can only live for a while anyway. Don't you see Lawrence?" He coughs up after that, Frypan has to hold him still, telling him it will be okay.

I remember Gally's leader's condition. It's true that he's infected and he constantly needs the temporary serum which is nearly empty as we saw it when we got into his base, but I cannot let Newt feel bad at the moment.

"Then focus on Minho. I got a serum here, you can take it now." I highly doubt he would take it now though since after taking it he would need to rest for hours.

"I know… it justs…" He exhales deeply. "I just wanna say, I am really thankful to have you guys with me in my life. I'm dying, and if there is one last thing I can do for everyone, I will do. I'm just… I'm just scared… to die before doing that, before seeing Minho again."

"It's not gonna happen." I get up and stand close to him. "It's not gonna happen okay?" I hug him tight and it seems to work as he cools down a bit even though he's quite sick right now.

"Everything is gonna be okay Newt." Now everyone is hugging Newt, sending him the support he needs. We then release ourselves from him and thankfully he is smiling.

"Thank you guys…"

I hear Gally's shouting from under the hole in the other room.

"Is it?"

"Yeah. They're back with her." Jorge says.

* * *

After interrogating Teresa and making her remove the trackers from the four Gladers, it was time to finally pack up and do the mission. I grab the bullets and loads them into the magazines one by one, fifteen for each. I hope I don't use up all of the bullets or even have to fire one since this is supposed to be a quick search and rescue. Thomas assigns me to lead Minho and the other captives by using the bus located at the back of the WCKD building because we only have three armors for the infiltration so there was another reason to avoid a firefight.

"You think this is gonna work?" Frypan asks me while loading up, standing opposite of the table. There is a hint of worry in his voice.

"Unless we blow our cover, yes. This will definitely work." I assure him.

"Just be careful okay? We all care about you; your part is important."

"I will." I tap his shoulders. I then notice Jorge standing beside the wall thinking about something; I go there to see him.

"Better get going old man." I throw him the key to the car we drove in a couple of days ago. "Long road ahead of you."

"You sure I can't talk you out of this? It's your last chance."

"You know, it's not like you to shy away from a fight." I know Jorge always wants to fight those assholes so bad but this night, he respects Thomas' decision to stay out and handle the getaway.

"And it's not like you to go looking for one… I just can't help but think if I walk out of that door I'm never gonna see you again. Since when do we go sticking our necks out for strangers?"

His words may seem harsh and uncaring, but I know damn well the undeniably kind heart beneath them. It is just that he does not like to admit it.

Men and their poor hiding skills.

"I was a stranger once, too. And you went back to save their asses back there." I place my hands on his shoulders, giving my father-like figure a warm look of assurance and love. We both know it well, we hope things are going to be okay no matter what, without words we understand it in our hearts and souls.

I allow myself to exhale deeply. "Just don't leave us hanging."

"No…" He says firmly, gently shaking his head.

"Never."

We hug, a long hug, something to remember, something to go back, something…

I don't know.

Just something, I can feel it, but I cannot and I do not need to say. I do not have to, I feel it.

And I know he wants the same thing as well.

Jorge is the one to leave the holding hands and walk away.

"_Be safe… dad…"_

When I turn back to wait I notice Frypan, Gally and Newt talking about the latter's condition. The desperation in Newt's voice is strong no matter how hard he tries to hide by talking about Minho.

Newt has only been infected for more than a day but with all the running last night he seems to be getting worse. I put my hand in the pocket and touch the only serum left on me. After the attack a year ago I continued taking the serum but after some time I realized I was not sick anymore and there was no sign of infection on me. I talked to Jorge and my friends about this but they could not come to any concrete conclusion so I just stopped injecting myself and kept the last serum with me. Teresa was, for some reason, shocked about my condition but I did not want to think about it. That bitch is the traitor.

"Hey." I call Newt. "No one wants to see you die Newt." I take out my last serum and put it to Newt's hand. "We've lost too many friends already."

"How about Minho?" I know if I say back the argument will keep escalating and it will waste a lot of time. I let him walk past me and gear up.

I turn to Gally and secretly give the serum to him without Newt knowing. He was, without any doubt, shocked to the core.

"Brenda?"

"Take it. Newt's not listening to us."

"But-"

"We trust you." Frypan whispers. He pats his shoulder. "Don't let it down."

He finally - reluctantly - takes the serum.

"Why not Thomas?"

I quickly answer. "He'll give it immediately."

"OK…" Gally nods in understanding.

I go back to the table to clean the rest of the guns of the dust and mint and rack the slide back multiple times, making sure the cycle was smooth and unstuck. Thomas comes to gear himself up after arguing with Teresa.

"You were in love with her, weren't you?" I don't need to look up to know his face is surprised, then unsure. "I can see it."

"I don't know…" He grabs his jacket and wears it. "But I care… I hate her, but I don't wanna…"

Thomas cares a lot about people he loves no matter how bad they are which is what I admire the most about him. I still remember him protecting me from that building and the Right Arm; I would be dead right now if Thomas was not there. However, it is also his biggest flaw if he cannot think things through.

"Just be careful. You sort of have this problem where you can't walk away from people, even when you should." I load the magazine. "You can't save everyone Thomas. You are just one man." I give the gun to him.

"But I can try to save everyone I can." He grabs the gun. "Minho will be fine, Newt's gonna be fine I assure you." The last words were filled with worry and uncertainty.

"I hope so…"

* * *

"Argh… fricking tunnel…" I groan when my shoes nearly get stink from the mud.

"Be careful, the scent here is quite strong, last thing we need is WCKD recognizing us that way." Thomas warns me.

"I'm trying."

Just like what Thomas, Gally and Newt said to us yesterday, the tunnel was anything but good in smell. I have to get used to it though as pretty much everywhere in the world at the moment is ugly, both in smell and life; WCKD is just another annoyance to deal with.

We eventually get out of the sewer and to the subway system; a relatively long run later and we are at the door where my friends got up to check the city yesterday.

"This is the place." Gally says.

"All right we're now close to ground level. Time to split up and blend in." Thomas says, everyone nods.

"Good luck." Frypan and I wish them luck and go down to find another way to climb up. To save as much time as we can we decide to run.

"I wonder how are we going to find another door." I say between heavy breathings.

"Just keep running Brenda, it should be close soon!" Frypan says.

A short time later Thomas contacts us through the radio.

"Frypan, Brenda, this is Thomas, we're ready to infiltrate; did you find a way to go up?"

I turn the radio on. "We're still finding a way but it shouldn't be a problem." I reply. "Wish you were able to find alternative routes before you captured Teresa."

"Sorry, we did not think that far. Contact us when you're ready and we'll proceed."

"Roger that." I turn it off. We keep running and running but suddenly we hear something high-pitched from behind.

"Do you hear that?" He asks me. We both realize in horror as the sound gets louder and the ground gets shakier.

"Train! Run!" I shout and we run for dear life, hastily look for a platform to hide.

"Dammit the train's getting closer!" I start seeing headlights from behind.

"Keep running!"

The sound of the incoming train engine and the screeching of the wheels rolling on the railroad was getting closer and closer, I feel my adrenaline pumping up, my heart beating faster and faster; the Death's door is hauntingly closing in and there is still no escape yet.

"I see it! The door!" Frypan shouts and vaults up to the platform. I try to run as fast as I can, I feel the light from behind me.

"Take my hand!" Frypan reaches out his hands; in a heartbeat I grab them and he literally throws me up, the train passes by a mere second later. We breath heavily looking the train running with lightning speed.

"That was close." I note. It was an understatement to be honest. Part one of the plan is not in motion yet and we are almost victims to an automated system.

"Hell yeah…" Frypan says. "You're OK?"

"Yeah I think I'm fine…" I take Frypan's hand and get up.

"Well, at least we found a way." Frypan smiles until he tries to open it. "Ah come on!"

"I got it." I take out my tools and start working on the doorknob. It's been quite a while when I last picking a lock and this is the time to put my skill to use again.

"How did you do that?" Frypan asks me.

"Jorge taught me." I answer him.

"You seem to look up to him a lot, he's like a father to you."

"That's right, I own him so much."

I manage to pick it open. "Easy peasy." I spin the doorknob and open the door, revealing the stairs behind.

"There it is, our insertion point." Frypan notes.

"I'll contact Thomas." I turn on the radio and says to it.

"All right we're in position."

"Copy that. Time to insert."

"Roger." Frypan and I nod. We begin going up the stairs. When we are near the door the boy stops me.

"What's wrong?" I wonder why.

"Before we do this, I just wanna tell you one thing." He looks at me into the eyes, indicating it is serious.

"Well, thank you." I am greatly appalled at this sudden compliment. "You and Jorge. Thank you two for trusting us and sticking with us for the entire last year. Whatever happens tonight to either one of you, we're not gonna forget all of the good things you did."

I have to say, this was pretty sudden and out of the blue but I feel appreciated nonetheless. We do not know what is going to happen next, we may die, so a little thank-you beforehand is not bad. Besides, despite his big stature, he is actually really cute when he says that.

I smile back at him. "Thank you too Frypan. We're lucky to have you guys as friends." I hug the black boy tightly.

I release myself from him and open the door. "You're ready?"

"Yeah. Minho's waiting for us."

"Let's go."

Welcoming us from the other side of the door is a seemingly quiet but busy street, people were walking all over, guards are everywhere. I guess they are back after work.

It is strange, of all the ruined structures of the dead world, there is still civilization here and probably somewhere else, I just hate the fact that WCKD is the one responsible for our dismay while the people here are living peacefully and without hardships. Worst of all, they are performing inhuman experiments on many teenagers like me to produce the serum which, as far as I know, is not possible. Why are they keep doing this, why is Teresa keep doing this to Minho, to our friends, to everyone else?

There is no time for that though, Minho's priority number one, we don't leave friends behind any longer.

We walk in between other people, blending in like normal citizens of the quarantine zone. We find the wall that Thomas, Newt and Gally climbed up before after some scouting.

"There's the wall Frypan." I whisper to him.

"All right. According to Thomas, Minho's being kept in the building ten blocks from here, we'll split up. I'll run to the wall and you get Minho and others the hell outta here."

"Got it. Good luck."

Frypan goes forward, I keep looking at him to make sure he is fine until he is lost behind the crowd. I turn around and start walking to the tall building. The road is pretty okay save for some bodyguard groups detaining a Crank, probably for research purposes.

I eventually get into the building after a pretty long walk, my cover is pretty damn good so far.

"_So that's the building…"_

I keep blending in, avoiding looking at the bodyguards as naturally as I can. I detach myself from everyone and got to the south side of the building. There is a problem though: I cannot get past two bodyguards without getting caught.

"Gally." I radio him in. "I am near the gate but there are guards nearby. A little help?"

"Hang on a second." He replies and several seconds later the guards suddenly run inside, including the one watching the cameras.

"Nice work." I compliment.

"Just a false alarm and they'll listen. Get in now, you don't have much time."

"Got it." I quietly run through the door and hide myself behind a bus as the guards who got dispatched rush back. But I am not done yet as another set of guards patrolling from both sides of the bus behind me.

"_Dammit…"_ In a rush I crawl down under the bus and hide there. Luckily they just stand there for a while and walk away.

"_Phew…"_ I sneakily roll out and throw myself to another bus in front of me.

"Brenda what's your status?" Thomas contacts me.

I take out the radio and answer. "Status is: I'm working on it."

"Copy, just make sure you're ready on your end."

"Don't worry, you know I'm gonna be there." I turn off the radio and sneak through another line of buses. I see the door up ahead.

"_All right, I just have to hot-wire a bus and drive in, but how am I gonna do it without blowing my cover?"_

While I am thinking of a solution, several people walk down near the door. I hear them talking to the guards and one of them get into a bus. Must be a bus driver.

"_You're not taking passengers tonight!"_ I quickly run to the closing door and jump in. While the driver is still in shock I pull out my SIG to his head, shocking him further.

"Tell the guards or sound the alarm and you're dead, got it?" I threaten him.

"Who… who are you-"

"Do as I say!" I cock the hammer.

After several seconds still in shock and fear the poor old man reluctantly agrees. I hide under the driver seat with my gun still aiming at him as he drives the bus through the check point without any trouble.

"Where do you want me to go?" He nervously asks.

"Sub level one." I get up and point at an empty space between another bus and a car. "Park it here."

He parks the bus under my order.

"Look, whatever you are doing, you cannot get out of here alive-" I bash his head with my gun, knocking him out. I drag him off the bus and roll his tied-up body under the car, then I get back into the bus, close the door.

"Frypan come in." I decide to radio him.

"Frypan copy."

"What's your status?"

"Still working on it, it's a long way up you know."

"Then better speed up, I am at the position, waiting on you."

"Copy, I'll contact you when I get there."

I turn off the radio and lay down the floor, waiting. I nearly fall asleep right then and there should the alarm not ringing.

"Ah shit! What the hell?!"

Immediately after that I hear Thomas frantically calling through the radio.

"Thomas, what's happening?"

"We're compromised!"

"What? How-"

"Get them out now! Double time!" He shouts loudly through the radio.

"Dammit… All right we're doing it. How about Minho?"

"Still finding him but we are almost at the lab."

"Then you better do it quick. Brenda out."

I quickly inform Gally and Frypan as well.

"Gally, Frypan come in! Our cover's blown!"

"What?!"

"Whatever you are doing, do it quickly! Time's running out!"

"Okay!"

"Ready for pickup Brenda!"

I start the engine and drive to the pickup point.

"Brenda, where are you? We're here." Gally calls me and I answer by driving the bus in front of him.

"Come on let's go!"

"All right let's go let's go! Quickly, quickly!" Gally rallies the captives to go quick. "Front and back, front and back. Let's go."

However, I realize there is something off. I do not see Minho among them.

"Where's Minho?"

"They transfer him to the other side of the building, Thomas and Newt are in there."

"Well go find them, I'll wait here."

"Okay, just stay here okay? Don't move until we get back."

"I'm not going anywhere." Gally then runs away. I close the doors and turns to the kids behind me.

"Don't panic, just stay here okay? We'll move out when my friends get back." They nod in agreement.

I sit back in the driver seat, anxiously looking for any sign of my friends, but there is none.

"Come on come on where are you?"

Unexpectedly a black car is going down the parking lot. Definitely WCKD.

"Get down get down." All of us get down quickly. The car stops 20 meters in front of us and the shooters come out. I peek out to see what is going on. The guards luckily just run past without noticing a strange bus. But to my shock, one of them stops…

"_Holy fuck…"_

He calls his teammates and slowly approach the bus. I know I have to do something now or else we are all going to die. I do not want to risk leaving my friends behind but I also cannot endanger myself and these 28 kids over here either.

Well, there is only one choice now…

"Sorry Thomas…" I whisper to myself and start the bus.

"Hold on!" I press the accelerator and drive through the guards who smartly duck out. I hit the blocking bars and drive out to the street, ignoring the chasing guards.

"Frypan come in! Are you at the checkpoint yet?"

"I'm almost in! What's wrong?"

"My cover's blown! I'm driving through the city to the pickup point!"

"Shit!" He cuts off and after a short amount of time he goes back. "All right I'm in."

"Good! Get the crane ready!"

Suddenly a car knocks the bus from the right. I see another two on the right and three on the left.

"Here goes nothing!" I ram the rightmost car and keep pressing it until it hits the booth and rolls over, stopping the entire squad behind.

"Yes!"

I keep driving, going through a block on my right but to my surprise they have set up a blockade over there. Three more cars stop behind me too so I have no choice but to stop.

"Get out of the vehicle." The squad leader orders. I do so, telling the kids not to move.

"Now step away from the vehicle."

"I said step away from the vehicle! Put your hands in the air." I let him shout like that one more time and I will eat bullets for sure. I walk to the front of the bus, seeing more cars coming from my right.

"Drop your weapon!" I raise my hands up in the air. This is it, the moment I am waiting for.

POOOOSHHHHHHH!

I fire the flare gun to the air, the guards look up and find out there is a crane right in front of us. The one Frypan is taking control now. Several seconds later a hook flies down. Taking advantage of the distracted shooters I hook it to the front bar and run back to the bus.

"Hold on to something!" I warn the captives. Frypan starts pulling us up. "Here we go!"

The guards rush in and fire at us but the back of the bus which is flying forward due to the bus being hooked up hit them, knocking two down while forcing the rest to roll out of the way. Frypan's precision was not great though as we hit the building nearby, causing some screaming.

"Careful Frypan!"

"Sorry." After pulling us down to enough height he starts moving the crane to the outer side of the wall. We do not have time to catch our breath since the bar starts giving in due to the massive weight of the bus.

"Hold on to something." I tell the kids. The bar deforms one more time.

"Frypan now!"

He lowers the hook as fast as he could until it reaches the limit, at which point the sudden stop of the rope makes the crane jolt up, prying the bar off. We free fall down, but thankfully, it was only two meters or so. Recovering from the fall I quickly kick the floor as hard as I can, the bus naturally falls down in front and we naturally scream on the top of our lungs.

"Okay. Everybody off!"

* * *

**(Newt)**

We keep our heads low and our pace normal, the scientists look at our bare faces like some strangers but at least they don't stop us to find out why.

"Lock down the building, send everyone up to 20. And someone shut off those goddamn sirens!" I hear Janson ordering his men through the PA system.

"They're sending men up here." I whisper to Thomas and soon enough we hear footsteps closing in. We quickly get into an unused lab room without raising attention and hide in there. The gunmen run past us without noticing anything wrong.

"All right, let's go." We get out and keep looking for Minho, but luck is not on our side at the moment, he was nowhere to be found.

"Must be in another section of the lab." I nod and we both go to the hallway, but something is suddenly off.

I can feel some calm, anonymous force from our left side, I get goose bumps just from feeling it. We both turn to our left.

"_Ava?!"_ The sight of that woman triggers something in me, an everlasting fire of negative emotions I desperately try to bury ever since we meet directly one year ago. That unusual calmness of her, that same face she shows when Mary was killed, that same face when she captured Minho, I hate it so much. Thomas is already aiming his gun at her but before he can get a shot I notice Janson behind my line of sight. The antagonizing feel of WCKD is so strong that I don't need to see it with my own eyes.

"Thomas no!" I quickly drag him out of the open, Janson and his team fires at us. Ava and Minho are temporarily cast aside for now, we need to survive first.

We run to another part of the lab, scaring the workers there to clear out the area.

"Minho? Minho!" We scream his name, hopefully he can hear it as there are two guards in front of us now. We quickly fire our guns at them and fall back to the next section.

"There's just too many Thomas!" I provide supressing fire to let him take cover.

"Can it! Minho's very close now!" He takes out another gunman. "Minho where are you?"

We both fall back and fire back, eventually Thomas' gun run out of bullets.

"Shit I'm out!" He discards the shotgun and uses his P226 to take out a few incoming guards. I immobilized the two guards from our left, one more trying to flank us from behind and we take cover behind the wall.

"Newt get down!" We crawl back and sit beside the wall, checking our remaining bullets.

"Dammit I'm almost out." Thomas says after checking his gun but he still keeps holding them back. As I am brainstorming on a solution to end this firefight, I notice a grenade on the downed guard in front of us. I quickly take it out and slightly spin both ends of it, activating it.

"Get back!" I push Thomas back and throw the grenade near them. It explodes and sends out electric and explosion, shocking the guards and taking them out.

"Holy shit…"

"All right let's go! Go!"

"You two, freeze!" A guard suddenly ambushes us as we keep moving. Our guns were out of bullets and I cannot reach for my pistol without getting shot.

"Get down on the ground. Now!"

"I sad get your-" Someone tackles him to the wall and throws him to the glass, shattering it and knocking him out. Recovering from the surprise help, we realize the only one we know who can violently attack people like that.

"Minho…?" That was all we need to confirm before we hurriedly run into each other and bear hug. And even then, things are still like a dream to me. At last I am seeing my best friend again after one year, it might really be a dream. But no, that is Minho, the big, Asian Minho, the first friend I get to know from back in the maze. This is definitely Minho.

"Is this real?" He says in shock, still not believing it though.

I lightly punch him in the stomach, watching him slightly jolt in pain. "Now it's real!" I smile brightly, for a moment, I forget I am dying, seeing him make me feel alive again.

"Good to see you mate!" Thomas happily says, smiling.

Our happiness does not last long though.

"I got him! Over here!" The guards catch up to us, we have to run again. We run like hell to one section to another, we take the stairs and run down several floors until the guards from below corners us, to which we have to run to the closer floor.

No matter how hard we do, we still hear the screaming sound of the gunmen. Janson and his force eventually cut us off ahead of us.

Luckily I notice a door to my right. "In here in here!" We bust in as they fire at us, no one was hit to my relief. Thomas closes the door and locks it. We are in some kind of storage room with a lot of medical equipment, laboratory equipment, some computers and several gas tanks.

"Newt come on!" Minho rallies me to drag a stall in front of the door. This should by us some time.

As we are trying to figure out what to do we see sparks coming out from the door.

"They're sawing the lock!" I realize what they are doing.

"Any ideas?" Minho asks. We turn around and realize we are looking at the glass window.

"Maybe…" Thomas breaths.

"Gas tank!" We take a gas tank and throw them to the window. It flies past the door and destroys the glass. We watch the tank flying down fast to the pool below. It's definitely a long fall but there is no choice.

"Okay it's doable." Thomas' words seem to be trying to convince him instead of us. "Just need uh, a little running start."

The adrenaline starts pumping up through my blood again, I take deep breaths to calm myself down.

"You sure about this?" Minho wonders.

"Not really." Thomas answers.

"Nice pep talk."

"Yeah, we're all bloody inspired." I say cryptically.

"Or we don't and they kill us."

In all of a sudden the door blasts open, we all turn back to realize they are starting to storm in.

"Shit…" With no other choice we run to the destroyed window and jump down. Fuck, it is a long fall, we scream as we are about to hit the water. The impact was incredibly painful and if not for luck, my bones and muscles would be toast right now.

We surface, looking at our chasers who have no other choice but to accept defeat.

"Goodbye assholes!" I say with a smirk. Thomas ups it by throwing the finger at Janson. We all chuckle as we swim to shore and run away. Thomas helps me and Minho up and we start to get out of here.

"You three, don't move!" A guard says at us. He and three more aim their shotguns at us. _"Great…"_

"Take it easy."

Thomas puts his hand on the pouch.

"Ah ah ah ah ah! Don't even think about it!"

"_Dammit… are we going to die now?"_

"Get down on your knees with your hands in the air-" That gunman suddenly turns around and takes out his three buddies swiftly. As we still try to figure out what the hell just happened he turns off his mask and reveals himself to be…

"Gally?!" Minho gasps in complete shock. So that's why his voice appears to be not as strong as the guards we met.

"Minho… You guys are nuts."

"I'll explain later." Thomas pats Minho's shoulder who is still in shock.

"We need to move, come on!" I rally him and he eventually follows. We take out the guns and ammo from the downed shooters.

"We gotta get back to the tunnel, run!"

We run as quickly and quietly as we can, but a patrolling chopper does not allow us to. We have to take cover under the buildings.

"They're still tracking us, take cover behind the trees." Thomas leads us to the tress and rest there. My infection, however, does not rest; in fact, it is getting worse and worse. My brain is becoming dreamy and incoherent, I cough more and more.

"Newt, how are you feeling?" He asks me in concern.

"Terrible…" I say the truth as I unzip my jacket to have some breathing room. "It's good to see you though." I place my hand on his shoulder, feeling glad to see Minho again in probably my last hours.

"I'm glad to see all of you too." He says, touching my hand and smiling at me. "Thank you."

Minho runs to Thomas and Gally and talks to them. I look at the ground below me which is reflecting the light of the building nearby to see myself.

"Oh shit…" The black veins appear faintly on my neck and my cheeks, if I don't get myself injected I will become a Crank in an hour or less so. I try to remember the good old times to forget the pain.

To my horror, I cannot recall anything…

The times at the maze, I have forgotten them…

I look at my friends and for a moment, I forget who they are.

"_Gally… Minho… Tho… Tho…"_

"…"

"_Thomas…!"_

Oh god, I may not be able to remember them anymore. Fearful of that, I repeat their names internally, almost like a robot, until they rush to my side.

"Hey Newt, you're seeing this?" Gally shows a small tube with some blue liquid inside.

"What? What the…" I gasp in surprise.

"Yeah, the serum." Minho confirms it. Yes, that blue liquid, it's definitely the serum!

"How-how-how-how did you? They're destroyed in the lab remember?"

"No, this is the one Brenda secretly gave to him." Thomas says.

"Brenda?!"

"Yep. We care about you Newt. Minho's out now, ready to take this?"

Of course I have the chance to live again, even only for a day. I gladly accept.

"Alright, do it. Just make sure you are ready to help me move."

Gally takes out the needle of the tube and prepares to inject me with it.

A strong light suddenly blinds us.

"There they are!" Damn those helicopter lights! The gunman in the helicopter fires at us. Almost immediately several gunmen approach us from our right. We frantically run behind another tree for cover.

"Ah!" Gally screams.

"Gally!" Thomas gasps.

Luckily he was only shot in his hand, but why is it has to be the hand that is holding the serum?!

"Where's the serum?" I ask as I try to shoot out the light and the shooter in the helicopter.

"I drop it." He answers.

"Where is it?" Minho inquires.

"It's over there, twelve meters! Gally points at the serum. It was quite far away from our hiding spot.

"Take out the helicopter first!" We all fire at the helicopter; after a ton of bullets we eventually to first destroy the light and then kill the gunman, forcing the helicopter to flee as well.

"The helicopter's gone!" Minho says.

"Okay I'll get the serum! Cover me!" Thomas runs out of cover to retrieve it and we fire at WCKD personnel to help him. However, the shooters fire at the ground while others fired their shotguns at him, forcing him to take cover.

"Thomas!"

"Thomas get back!" Ignoring our pleadings, he grabs another cover near the serum, waiting for the chance to grab it.

Suddenly amongst the gunshot sounds from us and them I hear a sound of glass breaking. I fear for the worst and peek out, finding out my worst nightmare has come true.

The serum has been broken!

"Shit!" Thomas cursed. I look at that blue puddle in complete shock, horror and hopelessness. I am so lost in it that Thomas has to drag me back to run away.

Now my chance to save myself is lost…

"Sorry guys, they shot the serum." He apologizes. Gally and Minho fire back at the shooters as we fall back.

"What the hell are we gonna do now?!"

"The vault's not the only one right?" I say after we stand behind a wall under the steps of the way getting in and out of the apartment.

"What do you mean?" Minho wonders.

"The vault containing the serum we found was destroyed… but it's probably not the only one right?" I try to say through the unbearable pain. "No one is stupid enough to store many important things in only one place."

"Maybe…" Gally confirms after a lot of hesitation. "I asked the captives and they said so."

"No…" Thomas realizes in horror, and so did we.

"Yes…"

"WCKD is my only chance now…"

* * *

**What a twist of fate!**

**The organization they desperately fight against is now their only chance to save Newt!**

**Life is cruel right?**

**See you in the next chapter!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Here is it folks, the fated moment of that particular Runner, but he is not the only one today.**

**Hope you enjoy reading the (sad) chapter.**

* * *

**Chapter 6: Once Again**

* * *

**(Teresa)**

"Janson, I need him alive!"

That trigger-happy bastard! He only knows how to kill, not preserve lives, at least I am still safe and sound. Minho is still in the lab so if Thomas and Newt hurry they will be able to break him out and get the hell out of this city. I do not really have to worry too much as firstly, they no longer care about me, and secondly, I know they do not kill unarmed personnel like scientists even though many of us are bad. If that was the last thing I can do to my former friends then at least I can be at ease now. Anyways, it is not my concern anymore since I have another important thing in mind.

I take out the cotton wool damped in red blood out of my pocket and inspect it.

"_I need to confirm it."_

My theory.

Since Brenda does not show any symptoms of the Flare virus anymore as far as I saw, it may be either because of her immunity or Thomas' blood since Mary used his blood to cure her. Back in the church I managed to grab Thomas' wool with my other hand after Gally stopped me, thinking I was trying to grab a knife. I need to be hurry though as the resistance out there may be using this opportunity to attack.

As the 20th floor has become one hell of a warzone I take the stairs down one level and wait near the door entrance until it is open again. From above, I can hear the gunshots, the screaming, the explosion, thankfully I am not there right now to see the horror.

After ten minutes or so the alarm finally stops and the door opens. I run into a nearest lab possible and start the procedure. After sterilizing the cotton wool, I suck Thomas' blood out with a syringe and work with it from there. The process is quite long; I don't keep track of the time as things are spiralling out of control.

The result is the same as any other failed attempts before, a blue liquid, but I am hoping for a definite result this time. I use a pipette to suck a bit out and test it on a Flare sample.

"_Holy shit…"_

It is more than I expected when I look through the microscope.

It works!

It finally works now!

"_But is it just one case?"_

With that in mind, I take several more samples and test the new serum, not forgetting to write down what I saw.

And the result is magnificent. Every tests comes out positive with an 100% success rate! This serum completely destroys the virus.

Thus the conclusion: Thomas's blood is the definite cure for the Flare virus. With this, I can save Shai who is locked up in a private room at the moment and Thomas can save Newt.

"_Thank you Thomas…"_ I smile, it quickly fades to a frown as now I realize what I need to do to create this serum.

I need to bring him back somehow.

Suddenly I hear a huge explosion from the outside. I look out the window and realize the worst thing has come.

The rebels have destroyed the wall.

They now storm in the city, shooting anyone in the way.

"_Fuck! Thomas!"_ I gasp, knowing Thomas and his team are now in the danger and I have no way to save him. What do I do now?

"Everyone, get out of here now! This building is not safe anymore!" A guard orders from the outside of the lab.

"Let's go let's go! We don't have much time!"

The PA system starts ordering people to evacuate to the helipad on the rooftop, everyone runs in panic and WCKD personnel guide them to the roof. I ignore all of that, I cannot lose this chance to create the world's cure no matter what. I have to stay here until the end.

"Miss Teresa, please evacuate, this place is not safe anymore!"

"No!" I deny. "I cannot leave now, I still have work to do!"

"Leave it for later miss, I won't say again!"

"Stop!" A female voice speaks up. I instantly recognize it.

"But Chancellor, the rebels are attacking-"

"I know!" Ava says. She walks past him and talks to me. "Teresa what are you still doing here? We have to leave."

"No I can't. Not without Thomas."

"It's too late for that. He's gone." She has a point and I know it, but the chance is too high.

"No. You don't understand." I show Ava a vital of Thomas' blood. "I need more. Come, look." Ava looks through the microscope and she is just as surprised as I am.

"It's not just slowing the virus down. It's destroying it. All of the other serums we created only slows the virus, not this one."

"We need to find Thomas."

Ava wonders about the idea for a bit before agreeing.

"How? You know he's not coming back anymore."

"There's only one person who can make him come back." I exhale deeply. "Me."

"Probably." Ava sighs. "But how are we going to do?"

I brainstorm a bit and realize something.

"The sensors. Look, before Thomas and his team broke in here they captured me and made me remove the sensors, that's why there was no alarm. But not everyone got them removed."

"You mean… Minho?"

"Yes. He must be with Thomas now. Besides, his friend Newt is infected and I know Thomas would do everything to save him."

Ava nods. "Then let's do it, clock's ticking."

She turns to the guard. "Leave this place, evacuate the workers."

"But-"

"NOW!" That loud voice finally makes him agree. He reluctantly leaves.

"All right, let's go!" We both take the elevator and go down. Before we get in, I notice someone behind me, grunting. Typical Crank symptom, but not typical face.

"Shai...?"

I cannot believe it! That little girl is suddenly outside? How could she-

She suddenly rushes towards us and with throws all of us inside with unnaturally tremendous strength.

Shai crawls towards Ava and tries to bite her. Due to the suddenness Ava cannot hold Shai back properly.

"Teresa help!"

The girl opens her drooling mouth and gets very close to Ava's face.

"Shai! No!"

I throw myself to Shai in instinct, knocking the girl to the corner. I pin her off, she slides down and stops moving.

"Are you alright?" I ask Ava in heavy breathings.

"Yeah I'm fine." She gets up by herself. "Teresa…" She looks at the girl with a shocked look.

I quickly turn to the girl. "Shai…? Can you hear me?" I hold her face and ask her. No reply. Fearful, I check her breath and eyes.

Nothing…

Any sign of life I can possibly scope out in Shai is completely gone.

"No…"

"No no no Shai! NO!"

"Shai! Wake up! Wake up please!"

"Shai!"

Goddammit!

I just murdered a little girl when there is a chance to save her!

I cannot hold my tears back, I just keep shouting and her name and crying, even Ava hugging me does not stop it either.

I just sit there, breaking down in defeat, ignoring the fire, the shots, the screaming from the outside.

The door opens.

"Come on Teresa."

She helps me go outside. I keep looking down, losing all will to go.

"Look Teresa." She grabs my face and forces me to look at her. "I'm sorry for Shai, I'm sorry for being the reason she died, but there's no time. You can still save your friend okay? But we can only do that if you get yourself together. Don't let the girl's death be in vain."

She is right, I can still save Newt, nobody has to die like Shai again. I slowly nod.

She wipes my tears just like what my mother used to do. "All right… let's go.

I give a last look at the dead Shai and run. We rush to the control room as fast as we could. I sit down in front of a vacant computer and start tracking Minho's sensor.

After a while the screen shows his location.

"There they are!" I say, grabbing Ava's attention.

"He's in a building… near here?" Ava notes. Eventually he goes out of the other side where I assume there is no gunfight and start slowly going towards…

"He's going to this building? Why?" Ava cannot help but wonders at this turn of event. There is absolutely no reason why he and Thomas are doing this. I quickly find out why though.

"They're losing Newt." I say.

"What?"

"Newt's condition must have been worse and they're probably desperate." The screen shows them getting to the entrance.

"They don't know about Thomas' blood?"

"Maybe, I didn't tell them."

"Allright, contact them."

I take a deep breath, grab a microphone nearby and start talking to it.

"Thomas?"

* * *

**(Minho)**

"No, we're not going back there! Not again!"

I furiously protest. I just got out of that shithole of a prison and now I have to get back there again?!

"It's our only chance to save Newt!" Thomas screams while shooting at the guards.

"Then tell me how the hell are we going to get back with these shooters firing at us?!"

"We gotta get outta here first. Fall back!" Gally provides supressing fire while we run back.

"Come on Newt, hang on." I say to a weakened Newt, he does not reply but there's no need to, he's clearly trying to hold himself together as hard as possible. We fall back to a building and hide there.

I check Newt's condition; he is getting worse every minute we stay here.

"Leave me…" He weakly mutters.

"No! We're not leaving you!"

"I'm a goner now… just leave me…"

"We're gonna make through this you hear me?" Thomas says to him. "We need you to stick together okay-"

BOOOMMMMMMMMMMM!

A bright red light and a huge explosion occur. We all duck with our heads covered to protect ourselves from the shaking furniture and the shattered glass.

"What the hell-"

"Quiet!" Gally signals us to remain silent as WCKD shooters walk past the building to check what is going on. They also put roadblocks in the street to prepare. We sneak out to see what the hell is happening.

"Oh shit…" Newt says.

"The wall's destroyed…" I mutter in shock.

"They attack the city?!" Thomas gasps.

"We're supposed to take down WCKD…" Gally says while clutching his arm. "Not this whole damn city…"

The siren hauntingly blasts the entire city, the rebels are rushing in from pretty much everywhere and shooting at anyone they see. An RPG warhead flies past and destroy a bus in the street, the debris blows up all around and we almost get hit.

"Fucking Lawrence and his gang!" Gally swears.

"Gally come on. We have to hide!" Thomas pulls Gally back. We have no other choice but to hide in here as destruction unfolds outside. The rebels shoot guns, throw flares, shoot their grenade launchers, some are even wielding RPGs and others are riding technical in. On WCKD's part, while they are outgunned and outnumbered, they also fight back just as hard as the resistance. Dead bodies from both sides lay down around and we are trapped in between.

"Dammit we're stuck! Newt's not gonna make it!" Gally grunts.

"Just stay in here, we wait for an opportunity to go out." I tell him.

"Thomas…" Newt speaks up. "How's Brenda… and Fry?"

"I'll contact them." Thomas takes out his radio. "Brenda, you there?"

The other end quickly replies. "Thomas I'm here."

"What's your status?"

"We got out with the kids, waiting on you. Did you get Minho?"

"I'm here, safe and sound!" I shout out.

"Thanks God." I can feel her smile from the relieved breath. "What are you waiting for? Get out! Lawrence's force's attacking the city!"

"We're not gonna make it."

"What? What are you talking about?" An explosion hit near the entrance of the building we stay in, dirt flying everywhere.

He takes a look at Newt before sadly answering.

"The serum you gave to Gally is destroyed."

"What?!" She gasps. "No! That can't be true!"

"The serum's gone Brenda, we're going back to WCKD to get some of it."

"No, don't be crazy, you can't get in there, it's too dangerous!"

"There's no choice Brenda… just take everyone else outta here while you still can. We'll come back later."

"No Thomas…" She says in a sad whisper. "I'm not gonna leave you. Okay? We're gonna get in and help all of you out."

"And Newt becomes a Crank?" A long silence occurs as chaos still happen outside. "Just leave us, we'll find a way to get out with **both** Minho and Newt alive." He turns off the radio. I imagine Brenda roaring at the other end of the line.

"So now we have no backup?" Gally asks.

"Yes." I confirm. "We have each other at least." We all smile after that. An understanding smile between all of us.

"Thank you everyone… for being here with me…" Newt says, his pessimism is evident.

"Shut up." Gally stops him. "We'll save you no matter what, got it? Let's go, the fighting's dying down a bit."

"Come on." I offer my hand, Newt looks at it with uncertainty before eventually grabbing it. Thomas and I help Newt up, Gally leads the way and we all get out. We quietly walk close to any cover we can find.

A burning car suddenly flies past us, forcing us to duck. The rebels rush in and kill anyone they see.

"How much further?" I ask.

Gally peeks out.

"Two blocks."

"Okay we're close." Thomas says. "We gotta go."

"Go without me man… You should just-" Newt did not finish his sentence as he coughs up the black liquid of the Flare virus. Poor Newt shivers and breaths heavily and we can only watch in despair. "I'm losing myself man… get outta here…"

"We're so close Newt, we cannot stop now. And so are you." I shake his shoulder. "We are all fighting for your chance to live. Don't lose hope pal."

"Okay. Let's get you up." Thomas says as Newt takes out his collar. "No Newt. Later later, come on-"

"You gotta take this." He shows the collar to Thomas.

"We gotta get you up-"

"No just TAKE IT! TAKE IT!" His red eyes, his increasingly heavy breathings and his shout nearly convince us he is turning. "Please… Please Tommy please…"

"All right…" Thomas puts it to his pocket. "All right, I need you to give me everything you got. Minho help him up."

I take his left arm while Thomas brings his other arm over his neck.

"You can do it Newt, just hang in there." I encourage him.

"All right. One, two, three!" We both get Newt up and start going again, Gally takes out any masked shooters attacking us; luckily almost anyone is busy shooting in the street that they do not pay much attention to a group of four going in the building. We slowly walk towards the building we dread to go back.

"Come on Newt we're almost there."

He breaths heavier and heavier, I can feel his strength slowly goes away until he cannot keep up and falls over.

"No Newt! Get up get up!"

"Get up, we're almost there!"

We grab him up again and resume walking.

"The entrance's there!" Gally shouts.

"See Newt we're there now, you'll be fine in no time."

"Focus on our voices Newt, don't black out."

Gally kicks the door open and rallies us. "Come on!" He goes out and helps us get in.

"All right, you three stay here, I'll get the serum." I tell them.

"_Thomas?"_

Suddenly a voice speaks up through the speaker system. That voice, no matter how distorted it is, is a female voice, one that I know too well.

"Is that…?" I wonder, still unsure, looking at the other three. They are just as shocked too.

"_Can you hear me?"_

I hate it too well too.

"It's Teresa…" Gally realizes. That girl who betrayed us one year ago and put me through horrible experiments to create the serum. I can feel my anger flowing through my veins.

"_I need you to listen to me."_

"_I know you have no reason to trust me, but I need you to come back."_ The broadcast continues.

"Well we're back…" Gally breaths out deeply.

"_Thomas, you can save Newt."_

"What?" Thomas gasps in surprise.

"_There's still time for him."_ We turn to the turning Newt. Is what she said true? Or is it just another stupid trick?

"_There's a reason Brenda isn't sick anymore. It's your blood."_ Thomas freezes in shock. _"Do you understand."_

"_She isn't sick, because you saved her."_

"_She doesn't have to be the only one. All you have to do… is come back…"_

"Do you trust her?" For damn well I will never do, but time is running out.

"_All of this will be over."_

"I don't see another option…" Thomas mutters.

"_Please… just come back to me…"_

He goes to a phone nearby and shakily takes out the handset. He turns around to see us. We both nod.

He nods back and makes a call.

"Teresa?"

"Thomas?!"

"Is it true…? Is it true that my blood is the cure?"

After several seconds she answers.

"Yes."

"Do you have other serums?"

"Yes… why? They won't completely cure him?" She cautiously says.

_No…_

With this, Thomas will have to turn himself back to WCKD again, and all of us will have to do it as well.

"Thomas what's wrong?"

We get closer, looking at each other. We all don't know what to do know…

And something unexpected gives us the answer.

* * *

Something is wrong.

I turn around, only to see Newt standing up.

"Newt?"

_Oh no…_

Black eyes, black veins, black drool.

"Newt…?"

GRAHHHHH!

The roar tears all rays of hope, in that very moment, I think my soul has left the body.

Newt dashes towards us but I managed to shove him out of the way. Quickly he gets up, takes out a knife and lunges towards us.

"Newt no!"

Gally tries to stop Newt but he gets out of the attempted armlock by punching him and slashes him repeatedly.

"Newt!" Thomas charges in and tackles him before Newt can do any further damage to Gally; they both roll out several meters away.

"Gally!" I call him. He has multiple wounds in his legs and stomach, blood starts dripping out.

"I'll be fine!" He says. He tries to get up but the pain stops him cold. "Call Teresa now!"

I briefly stand still in complete shock. The thought of calling that bitch is just too much for me, but this situation demands no time wasted.

"Do it Minho! She knows where the other serums are!"

I muster all of my willpower to forget the hatred at the moment and call her.

"Teresa! Where's the serum?"

"Minho?!" She gasps in shock.

"WHERE'S THE SERUM?!"

"But-but that won't-"

"Newt's turned! We need something right now! Tell me where it is or I'll kill you!"

Teresa breathes heavily before calming down.

"It's in my lab…"

"Get it now! We'll stop Newt!" I drop the handset and rush back to the fight. Thomas is currently keeping a distance from Newt, who seems to get some humanity back.

"Tommy… kill me!"

"Newt… I'm here…" Thomas tries to bring his human side back. It was useless anyway as Newt roars and attacks him. He swings his knife down, Thomas catches his hands, they struggle.

"Newt stop!" I rush in to stop him but he quickly swings his knife the moment I get close, nearly slashing my stomach.

The blind attack causes me to fall down; Newt quickly charges in and swings his knife. I stop the blade in time but he still manages to stab me in the side. The pain was so much that I scream despite trying not to. Newt yanks the knife out and attempts to hit my heart.

Luckily Thomas manages to stop him and drag him out of me, kick his blade out and have him in an arm lock. To his surprise Newt kicks him in the stomach and then in the head and pins him down.

"Thomas!" I scream his name; I cannot get up due to the pain, and so can Gally.

"Newt please!" Thomas pleads. "Please…"

Miraculously Newt stops attacking, the ray of hope is not over yet.

"I'm sorry Tommy."

"It's okay… it's okay…"

Newt grabs Thomas' handgun, racks the slide and put it to his head.

"Don't!" I gasp.

"NOOOO!" Thomas quickly hit Newt's hand, throwing the gun away. Newt roars, going back to a Crank and choke Thomas.

I use all my strength to get up and knock him out of Thomas, then I quickly go to Newt and hold him down. With my superior stature he will not be able to break free.

"Thanks Minho…" He says and turns to the wounded Gally who is sitting beside a desk. "Gally!"

"I'm okay!" He assures him. Thomas takes out a piece of cloth and bandages Gally.

"Gally's got Newt down, we're fine for now."

"I'll handle the bandage, get the serum from Teresa!"

"Okay."

I look down at the groaning Newt.

"See that Newt, we're getting another serum to you! You're gonna be fine!"

"Thomas! Get the serum now-ARGHHH!"

Newt presses my stab wound, I scream out painfully. He quickly grabs the dropped knife as I am still holding the wound and tries to stab me. I try to stop him but I still get hit in my left shoulder.

Newly turned Cranks are horrifyingly intelligent, proved by Newt twisting the knife 90 degrees, antagonizing me further. He pulls it out again and from the look of his eyes, goes for the kill.

"Stop!" Thomas roars and throws himself to Newt. They both roll over pretty far from my location.

"I have him! Go!" Thomas grunts.

I get up and walk further to the lobby, when I am near the stairs I can see Teresa running down.

"Teresa!" I call her out.

"Catch!" She throws the serum down and I catch it. "It'll stabilize him for some time."

I click the button, both ends of the stick get pulled out, revealing a compact syringe.

"Now Minho!"

I glance up at the betrayer for a while, nodding.

I rush back, holding the pain.

Newt is swinging his knife like a maniac towards Thomas as he tries to stand back. The distance is getting closer.

_No no no Newt!_

"Do it NOW!" Gally says to me.

I gather all my strength and run to my friends.

"NEWT!"

I inject the serum to Newt and tackle all of us down…

At the same moment the distance becomes zero.

"NO!" Gally screams.

I get back to my senses too late to figure it out.

"No… Thomas!"

Fearful of the worst, I pull each other out far enough.

The knife did stick…

But in Newt's heart.

"Tommy…" He weakly gasps. "Minho…"

And he stops breathing.

"No, no."

"Newt no!"

"No no no…"

Newt is gone…

I only know I am crying after two drops of tear hit his heart.

"No… Newt no…Newt… no…" I muttered, like a broken robot. Just about 30 minutes ago I met my friend again after a long year apart, and now…

"Please Newt… wake up…wake up!" Thomas begs Newt, futilely of course.

I turn to look at Gally who is helped standing up by Teresa. Their faces are just as broken and their eyes are just as teary as us. We all crouch down nearby Newt's dead body, the used serum still sticks in his stomach, and so does the knife.

In that moment, we just cry and cry and cry, forgetting whose sides we are on.

We are together once again.

And once again, one of us is gone forever…

* * *

**Harsh, right? Raging at me for letting him die again right?**

**Life is cruel folks.**

**One thing I did not like from the movie trilogy is how much they focus on Thomas, a little too much. While they did give Teresa, Newt and Minho more screen time in The Death Cure it is still not enough. So this scene, this particular scene, I decided it is the moment to have the main characters together instead of just Thomas and Newt.**

**Of course 1 vs 3 is still too much no matter how ruthless Crank Newt is so I made it much more violent.**

**See you guys later.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7: Decision**

* * *

**(Minho)**

For all of my life, I have always wondered what would happen if someone has done their deeds in the living world, what would happen if someone is no longer tethered to this material plane, a miserable and cruel one? Is there another plane of existence? Is there a better place to be after so many hard years on planet Earth?

Is that the question only the dead can answer? Is that the place no living beings can see?

I don't give any shit about it, but if there is one, I hope my best friend Newt can be happy in there for eternal. You have done very well, now it's time to rest.

I just hate it that I was too late to keep his life longer, even if only a little. If only I had injected that serum sooner…

"_I'm sorry Newt…"_ I apologize to his corpse, then I wiped his open eyes close, letting my friend sleep and go to Heaven, if it even exists.

I hear the quiet sounds of something small and sharp hitting the ground, closer and closer, then it just stops. Before I give any notice about it Thomas and Gally have pulled his gun in that direction.

Ava Paige.

The head of WCKD, the woman who was a part of our misery and pain that we should have never felt in first place, all because of some goddamn cure she made up. I can feel my palm closing into a fist.

"Tell me…" Thomas shakily says. "Is it true?"

"Is it true… that I could save him?"

He cocks the hammer. "Is it true that I COULD SAVE NEWT?"

His voice was angry but also painful at the same time. It is like he demands something he can vent all of his anger at. And to be honest, we all want to do it to, double or triple the amount even.

"Yes…"

In all of my prediction, I never expect to see Ava that emotional and teary like that. I guess beneath that callousness she may have a conscience after all.

"I don't fucking believe it!" Gally says, harsher than Thomas but also just as hurt.

"There's a little girl in here, she's infected. I could have saved her as well…" Teresa speaks up, trying to calm the tension down. "But she ended up like Newt…"

Shai, the name I barely heard when she interrogated me. At first I thought it was another lie, but her pained face and eyes say the opposite.

"Please… Thomas…" She gets up and gets in front of him. "So many good people die already…" She hiccups. "We… I need you to stop all this… You're the true cure of all of this."

"Please…" Her voice trembles.

Thomas looks into Teresa's eyes for a while before he de-cocks the hammer and puts the gun down. I admit Teresa is really good at persuasion, especially to the person that cares about her the most.

"One condition…" He turns to Ava. "Let my friends go and I'll turn in."

"What? NO!" I protest. "We don't leave you behind!"

"It's the only way."

"They're fucking lying to you!" Gally adds in. Of course they may be.

"I started all this…" I do not want to believe it but it's true. It all started when Thomas was sent to the Glade when he was still in the other side.

"_No Thomas… don't…"_

"Maybe I am the only one to finish it."

I know no matter how much I want to tell him to stay he will just ignore them all.

"We already lost Newt Thomas! We don't want to lose anyone else!" Gally argues.

"And we lost everyone else in the planet until there's no one left?" He shots back. "I don't care if it's true… but…"

"Just go… I'll catch up."

"We'll return him as soon as it's done. Just one pint." Ava reassures.

"How can we trust you after what you did?" I ask. "The situation outside is even worse."

"I always want to save the world…" Ava says, still calm and collected as ever, but I can still see some fumbling. "Even if what I did is no good-"

BANG!

A gunshot.

Blood stains Ava's white shirt from the left chest area. The woman weakly gaps and falls down

"Ava!" Teresa comes to catch her. I look up and realize someone familiar.

Janson…!

"Thomas look out!" An electric round hit Thomas. He falls down, shaking and screaming.

"Thomas!" We all yell. Before we can do anything one of his guards fire another electric binding shot at Teresa as well.

"Kill the rest!" Janson orders. The guards fire at us but Gally and I manage to duck into the long reception desk.

From cover I see Janson hitting Thomas in the head to knock him out, then he orders his men to drag both him and Teresa out.

"Thomas!"

"We can't get to him now Minho, calm down!" Gally states the obvious.

"Shit!"

"Hold on." Gally pulls out a grenade taken from the three downed guards before and activates it. He throws it to the shooters and one second later some of them scream.

"All right let's go!" I help Gally up and run to the front door as we shoot back at them. Since Gally is wounded in his legs we cannot run fast, the bullets get very close to us. We ignore it in our rush and keep going and firing back.

Eventually we get out of the desk and dash madly to the front door.

"They're out of the building, chase them!" Janson loudly orders, the masked gunmen give chase. We are riddled with bullets again as we run down the stairs.

"Dammit, I'm out!" Gally throws his empty gun away. I quickly give him my own and we keep running down.

We run down to the streets where the chaos is still going on.

"Dammit Thomas!" Gally says.

"We'll get him later; we need to get out first."

"Why am I always have bad luck when I am with you? It all started when you placed that blade on my shoulder and then you threw that spear!"

"I'm saving your ass Gally! Now shut up!"

Meeting us from the streets are debris, fire and, for God's sake, several gunmen. They notice us and raise their guns on us.

"Fire!" The gunners from the back catch up and fire madly. We quickly duck behind a car. Luckily no one was shot.

We try to shoot them back but the shooting is so much that I cannot even get up properly to fire, not even counting the wounds from Newt. Everywhere around us is Death, the Grim Reaper is waiting for the moment to capture.

"Shit we're trapped!"

Very few bullets left, no grenades, no nothing to help us turn the tables around.

The bullets get closer and closer; I can feel they are coming very close to our hiding spot.

"Sorry buddy." I look at Gally in the eyes and say my last words.

But it never is.

Suddenly some of the shooters gasp in pain and drop down, dead. I look out and realize some rebels are shooting at them.

"Ok, go!" I take the opportunity to go out of the gunfight with Gally.

He takes out his radio. "Brenda, Frypan come in! Do you copy?"

"Gally I'm here." Frypan answers. "What the hell are you guys doing in there?! You need to get out now!"

"We are! Where are you?"

"We're in a Berg with Jorge and Vince!"

"Land in the courtyard near the train station! We're coming in."

"Copy!"

We keep running in the dark, avoiding any shooters and destruction in the way. Sometimes stray bullets and debris fly close but otherwise we are fine.

"I see it!" I tell Gally after I hear engine sound from the air. Gally waves to the right to signal where to land. It lands down in the courtyard several stairs above us and the loading hangar opens. All the captives are there along with Vince, Jorge, Brenda and Frypan.

"Come on Gally, hang in there."

We eventually get up and with Brenda's help we finish climbing up the stairs.

"Glad to see you safe." Vince speaks up, I smile back in return.

"You too Vince, Jorge!"

"Shit… you two got hurt bad!" Brenda comments in shock.

"We got lucky."

"Where's Thomas and Newt?" She asks.

"Thomas' captured."

"What?!"

"How about Newt?" Frypan says from behind.

I sigh deeply before facing him. "He's dead…"

"What…? No…"

"We did not make it in time… I'm sorry…" Gally lowers his head.

We stand silent for a while, mourning the loss.

"Where's Thomas?" Jorge asks.

"Janson captures him and Teresa."

"We have to get in!" Brenda immediately rushes in. I have to use a lot of force to hold her back.

"Let me go Minho!"

"The streets are not safe Brenda!" She finally relents and I let go of her.

"We'll use the Berg. Get in." Jorge advises.

"Good idea." Gally agrees. I help him up and we all get in. Jorge pilots the VTOL, Brenda and another captive help patch me and Gally up. As the Berg gets attitude we get a good look at the hellish Last City: buildings are burning, destruction is everywhere, the streets are flooding with fire and dead people, both guilty and innocent alike.

"Holy shit…"

"Fucking Lawrence." Gally curses.

"This is worse that it gets." Brenda comments.

"And Thomas may be even worse." Vince says from the pilot seat.

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"Look."

True to what he said, the tall WCKD building where Thomas was captured is on fire.

"Shit!"

"Where's Thomas?"

We get closer and try to look into the windows but we don't get any results beside the flame.

"The lower floors are on fire… he must be on the roof." Frypan says.

"Get to the roof!"

The Berg moves up to the roof, and true to our prediction, Thomas is there along with Teresa.

"There they are!" I gasp.

"Open the hangar!"

* * *

**(Thomas)**

"You should have run Thomas."

THUD.

…

…

…

…

…

I hear echoes from afar.

Explosions, probably?

Another sting, a Griever?

No, something smaller, much smaller.

Where am I?

I open my eyes, figuring out the lightning of the ceiling. I feel the heat of a person standing close.

"_Teresa…"_

I don't really know what to think of her anymore. On one hand she says she is sorry for what she did, on the other hand, she is adamant to have my blood for the cure, the deathly cure. Despite all of that, one thing I am certain, and I probably should hate myself for that, is I cannot bring myself to harm her, or see her get hurt. Brenda is goddamn right, I have people issues.

Our eyes finally meet, her face is emotionless, tired, but I can guess out a split-second look of sadness. I feel something sucking out from my hand, and without needing to look down (I do anyway) I know she's taking my blood with a syringe.

"Do you know what this place is Thomas?" Janson's voice. He is standing near the window overlooking the destruction of the Last City.

He turns around. "It's a lifeboat. And the whole world might be sinking but… doesn't mean that we have to go down with it."

I try to find any possible way to get out of this son of a bitch but as I expected, I was tied up on both my hands and stomach. No way I can get out of this binding.

"How much longer?"

"Not for long but you gotta be patient." She says, working on the cure.

"I don't have time for patience."

That murderous eye of his greet my hatred and vengeful ones.

"Why don't you just kill me?"

"Kill you?" He pauses. "No, we don't wanna do that. We're gonna take special care of you." In short, detaining me for further inhumane experiments. "We'll keep you alive. Just-"

I jot up, I really want to hit that face so bad, were it not for the leather straps.

"And in return, you will give life to the rest of us." He rolls up his sleeves, revealing the black Flare veins. "The ones we choose to save, anyway."

Good, he does not have much time; bad, he is desperate, the serum is almost done and I know he may not keep the end of the bargain, if there was one. He might kill us both after getting it.

"I don't give life to murderers." I defiantly fire back. "I save souls. Yours' already out for a long time and the virus will do the rest." I try to remain calm and sassy as I can but in truth, I am panicking. The fear of being the test subject without my consent, it freaks everyone out.

Janson just laughs, angering me further. He grabs the syringe and activates it, ignoring what I said. "Of course there's not gonna be enough for everyone. Hard choices are gonna have to be made." Hard choices… Just like Teresa, but this man is way worse. I cannot let it happen. I try to force myself free, yanking the straps as hard as I could, and I don't want to feel the word "futile" at the moment.

"In time, the Flare virus will burn itself out. The only question is, who will be the ones left standing?" Teresa injects the liquid to the vial and Janson takes it to insert to the syringe. "And thanks to you, to this, we finally get to choose."

"A future of our own making." He gets ready to inject. I breath furiously, not wanting to believe what is going to happen.

"Right…"

CLANK!

The glass shatters, I cover my eyes and turn away, hearing the ground thumping sound. I turn around and realize Teresa has hit him with a glass bottle. She grabs the syringe and tries to unstrap me.

"Okay let's get out of here."

I am baffled, things just happen so quick and unexpected. I try to see any sign of lying in her eyes. There is none.

She finishes with my right hand and starts to work with the left one-

Janson!

"No!"

He grabs her and wrestles for the syringe, eventually throwing her over the table. In panic I hurriedly free my other hand as fast as I can.

"Teresa hide!"

"Get back here!"

"Give it to me!"

I finally free my hands and work on the stomach strap. I turn to see Janson knocking Teresa to the table and putting her out.

"NO!"

I jump out and tackle that bastard to the glass panel, shattering it and throwing ourselves out of the lab.

Holding back the pain, I pull Janson out and get up. He immediately gives me a punch to the face, I quickly deliver my own one back. I pin him to the wall, avoiding the backhand swing; he knocks me down and strangles me.

I use all of my strength to get up and knock him back to the wall. He intercepts my strike and drags both of us out. He then punches me down.

"Come on."

Taking a breath, I strike his face, leaving him dazed. I quickly deliver more punches but he stops me and throws me away.

"Okay…" He pulls out his gun. "That's enough."

I stare at the barrel, waiting for my end-

BOOOMMMM!

Two rockets hit the building, sending me sliding back and knocking the bastard down. Concrete falls down and the lights are off.

"Thomas!" Teresa walks through the debris and helps me up. "Come on."

"Wait-" I grab her hand. "Why?"

"We don't have time for now, let's go." She takes the vial out of the syringe. We start running out of the lab, it is not easy since the rebels are destroying this building.

I fell Janson getting up and pointing the gun at me.

"Teresa!"

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

I quickly drag her out and we run inside another room, to my right there are two Cranks behind the glass.

"We need to get out of here."

I feel something in my stomach; I hold it with my hand.

Blood.

"_Ah shit…"_

"What's wrong?"

She sees the gunshot wound now.

"Thomas?"

I lose all my strength and fall down, probably a harsh hit to the table if it was not for Teresa. I roll up my shirt and yes, there is a gunshot wound and it is bleeding.

"Okay… okay we need to…" She hurriedly searches drawers after drawers, trying to find something to hold my blood. I look at her doing it in pain.

"Here, here!" She finds a cloth and I press it down to my wound. "Just put pressure on it, hold it."

The focused face and the quickness, clumsiness, they are all seem trying to say something to me.

"You gotta go." I say to her. "You gotta go."

"No. Not without you."

I realize it.

She really cares about me so much.

I know no matter how much I try to she will not leave me now.

Suddenly smoke pours out from the entrance.

"Janson…" I whisper. "Hide."

"But-"

"Now."

She reluctantly agrees and crawls further into the lab after placing me to under the desk. I hug myself to the free space I can find and stay there, I try to calm my breath down and keep putting pressure on the wound.

"I admit Teresa, you had me fooled." Janson starts talking. "I thought we were friends." We used to be friends with him until the Glade.

A bottle rolls over near where I stay. I hold my breath and remain silent, I can feel Janson getting close.

"Maybe it's just in your nature to betray the people closest to you."

He does have a point I cannot argue with.

Janson shoots something. Is Teresa trying to draw attention away?

"Come on… Let's not prolong this." He walks to the right side of the lab, where I am certain Teresa is hiding. "We both know there's no way outta here. Let's not make this any more painful than it needs to be."

I realize he is walking to the direction of the captive Cranks. I crawl out of the desk and try to find a way to kill Janson.

"Thomas… Teresa…"

I peek out, finding Teresa crawling behind the opposite table. Janson suddenly stops near her.

"_No… Teresa!"_

I hear her crawl back, gasping in fear.

"I think you have something of mine."

I frantically look around for anything possible to make the plan work.

"Not that. Where is he?"

"Just take it, leave him alone."

"What is it with you two? You think he's so special? He's a lab rat. He was born with a gift."

"_Fuck you…!"_ I know it, I know it from the beginning. Thank you for fuelling my desire now Janson. I peek up, realizing there is a box above me. Maybe I can use it to hit that asshole.

Or…

"He never had the fight for it, he never earned it. He doesn't deserve it."

"Maybe…" Teresa says. "But it's his."

"What about you Thomas?" He says again after a brief silence. "What do you have to say? Don't you have enough blood on your hands already? You might not have been able to shoot her…"

"But I can."

I grab the box.

"Okay. Fine."

"_Time!"_ I get up.

"Have it your way."

"Janson!" I throw the box with all of my strength, he ducks it, making the box impact with the glass. The Cranks jolts back.

What I did not expect though, is that he suddenly shot me once again in my stomach.

"NOOOO!" Teresa screams.

I fall down from the shot, gasping for breath further and groaning from pain.

"Uh uh." I think Janson points his gun at Teresa again.

"Missed you little shit, and I got you again."

I grab the table to slowly get up.

The glass behind him slowly cracks.

"Did I?" I smirk.

It keeps cracking more and more before it completely shatters.

"Shit!" The Cranks grabs him and knocks him down, feasting on him.

"Come on we need to go." Teresa runs to me, throws my hand over her shoulder and we get out of the lab, leaving the murderous killer to his deserved fate.

We try to get out but the ceiling sparks furiously.

"This way. Here!" She directs me to the other direction. I am in so much pain after two gunshots to my stomach but I remind myself to keep going. The building burns and starts to collapse.

She opens the door to the emergency exit, unfortunately the lower floors are on fire. We decide to go up to the roof. The smoke is so much that we cough some.

We finally get to the roof, a burning roof to be exact. Pretty much everywhere here is on fire and there is no way out.

"Come on." We go back to the roof and an explosion occurs at the door.

"_No…"_

I collapse from all of the pain going on, Teresa puts my hand on her lap, I notice this is just like the time in the Glade where I injected myself with the syringe of a Griever to recover my memory. Only this time the place is on fire and I am terribly hopeless.

Despite my efforts, my mind becomes foggy and my body is numbing. Teresa hold my face close to her, crying. I cough out in pain.

She takes out the serum, the result of all of this mess. I tremblingly hold her hand. All of the death and destruction around just to get this, it is such a deadly cure. To top it off, we are trapped in a burning building with no way out. All we can do… is to wait to die.

"I'm sorry…" She apologizes in tears and hiccups, our foreheads touch each other.

I cannot bear to throw another hatred sentence to her anymore. This raw guilt and torment she shows to me were all what I need to know.

"I tried…"

"I know…" I feel my eyes becoming teary.

I do not know what to do anymore, it is just me and Teresa now. In all of this despair and hopelessness, we only have each other.

I lean close to her, she does the same. My lips dangerously close to hers, and without any words or double-thinking, our lips close to a kiss.

A sweet fruit of the dying word, a pumping happiness in the chaos. In those few seconds of that tenderness, it is all I felt, and I think she felt it too, I hope so.

And I know for damn sure, I am really getting it.

I love her…

* * *

We part our lips apart, returning to reality where even ten thousand seconds of tenderness will not erase. At least we are together, our hands are closing, my head is resting on her collarbone.

At least it is over without some sweetness…

Rotor sound?

A strong flashlight shows towards us. We turn to the direction.

A Berg.

I try to see the pilot. That face, it makes me hopeful again.

"_Jorge… everyone…"_

The plane turns around.

"Come on!" Teresa helps me up and gets to the edge of the building. The pain throws me down to the ground though.

Teresa helps me up again, I psyche myself up and use what is left of my strength to drag myself close to the opened hangar. Minho, Brenda and Vince stands near the edge.

"Thomas!" Minho encourages me. "Come on!"

"Come on Thomas!" Brenda says. Their words boost my will up more and more, numbing the pain. Vince lies down and opens his hand.

"Give me your hand."

"Get closer!" Teresa says.

Vince reaches out more, I finally grab his hand. The plane cannot get stable though due to the fire and I miss his hand.

The plane gets close again but suddenly a rocket hits the other building near the one we are standing, causing a strong wind and the building drops down.

Dammit we don't have much time!

"Come on reach! Come on! Reach!" Minho reaches his hand out. Suddenly Teresa throws me to them as soon as the hanger gets close enough. My friends pull me up and drag me inside. They then reach their hands out to Teresa, telling her to jump.

"Come on!"

"Jump!"

I look at her face. She's crying and shaking her head, stepping back.

"No… No! Teresa don't!"

She keeps crying and shaking, denying her chance.

"_Please don't!"_

"Teresa jump!" Minho tells her.

"Jump in!"

"Don't do it Teresa!"

No, I cannot lose her, I cannot lose her again. We just kissed once, I don't want to lose it so quick.

I reach my hand out to her.

"Teresa…"

The tears burst out of my eyes, my word reduces to a mutter, pleading her to make the jump and not do something stupid.

"_Teresa…"_

She stops shaking and looks at me, frozen. I don't have enough strength to say her name anymore, my mouth moves without words; but my mind can, and it is doing it repeatedly and madly. My hand trembles and without any strength left, I drop it down.

"_Teresa…"_

The other building slowly collapses into the building she stands in.

"Teresa no!" I scream with all of my might.

To my massive relief, she finally runs.

The destroyed building finally hits, knocking the plane back and collapsing the roof.

"_No!"_

Teresa finally runs off the building and makes the leap. Her hand tries to grab our friends'.

Not enough height, she starts slipping down!

"_NO!"_

Minho flies himself out, the others quickly hold his leg.

"Teresa!"

Things go silent for a while.

…

…

…

"Gotcha!" Minho speaks up.

Huh!

I gasp in relief.

"Don't let go of my hands Teresa." He turns to my friends. "Drag me back. Vince, help her up."

They do so and eventually Teresa is put on the plane. She runs to my side and we hug.

I close my face to her body and sob hard.

"Why… why did you do that?" I ask between sobs, punching her back like a little kid. In that moment I become a young boy again, hugging my mother close and not wanting to let her go.

I can feel her tears running down her cheeks and my hair. She is also crying.

"I… I can't live with it…"

"How… about… me…?" I cannot say anything anymore.

"Thomas…?"

"No Thomas!"

I slip to darkness.

* * *

**What an emotional ride!**

**For me Teresa still has potential to explore. All of the guilt going on and the two-faced girl will have to deal with it.**

**One thing I can tell you: The story's not getting done this easy. Wait for my future chapters and find out, or you can guess!**

**Stay safe!**


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